


Distant Foreign Shores

by Evanelle, Sedna (Evanelle)



Category: Naruto
Genre: (Kirigakure AU) (Canon Divergence), Introspection, Multi, Slice of Life, Snippets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:20:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 29
Words: 22,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23332264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evanelle/pseuds/Evanelle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evanelle/pseuds/Sedna
Summary: In that life she used to imagine herself being cast back in time, not reborn into a fictional world. And never one where someone like her had already begun to influence things, change them. A story told in snippets
Kudos: 9





	1. DFS Prologue

Prologue

The world has always been a strange place if you travel far enough to look.

And Tsuru well, she traveled much further than she could ever imagined.

Fifty-nine years younger she hangs off her fathers tall, powerfully built form like an ill-fitting set of pauldrens and cape. Her stomach pressed firmly against spine. Her head peaks over his shoulder, as they enter her brother in law's office.

A room filled with deadly men in open-toed sandals.

Tsuru waves, as if excited.

Six years ago she would of wobbled in. Her hip fractured, and the cancer spreading through her bones, making the arthritic limbs even more useless. Now she stands just over three feet tall. Her body still frail looking, but growing stronger with each month.

"And how is our little stork today?" the lord fourth teases. The papers in her fathers hands landing in the proper shelf beside him, its shiny name plate denoting village finances.

He's like her, she knows. And not.

The man has been changing things. Pushing them were he wants them without being too obvious, as their predecessors had been. Nothing else, she thinks could explain the state of this worlds technology, and it's faith.

"I am fine, big brother."

"And you?" Tsuru asks, struggling to detangle herself from her father's auburn locks. The hair caught on the feather shaped buttons, Yuuchii-nii had sewn onto her turtleneck's sleeve.

Taiga leans down a second later, to give her purchase on a leather upholstered chair. His face torn by a grimace.

"Oh!" She then adds more gleefully, as she sets herself to the task of removing the trapped locks. "Father says i can join the academy soon!"  
"Really?"

"Yes! I'm going to train hard, and become a shinobi like you, and Kisame-san."

A weapon.

A tool, but someone who can also protect themselves. And those she chooses.

A man, who has barely left the awkwardness of his early years laughs. The sharp points of his teeth bared, he steps out of the shadows. His uniform unable to hide the familiar green hands of the Hoshigaki clan.

People who had once, been pearl divers of unparalleled skill.

"A tiny fish like you, needs to be thrown back," Kisame remarks, looming over her. "You'll get eaten."

Tsuru snorts, leaning on the tip of her toes. "The academy's a fish farm. I'll grow quickly under the right conditions. Then you can complain like the fisherman, when I get loose on the boat."

A guffaw escapes her friend, and he wraps her head in a loose hold. Forearm against Tsuru's throat. His other hand more punishing as he musses her dark hair, loosening the the three buns that sit near the base of her skull.

"You shouldn't challenge your elders, brat," he barks.

She snorts, and tries to yank the young anbu's arm from her throat. "You challenge people all the time, Chomper."

Yagura's mouth twitches. "Does that make me Spike, and you Ducky?

"Yes, and Isano's Cera."

Her brother makes a choking sound, Tsuru thinks might be a straggled laugh.

"Do not tell her that," he warns.

"Perhaps I was mistaken, son," Taiga decides. "I do not was Tsu-chan to be disruptive."

Yagura waves him off. "She'll grow bored of us soon, and read that book you got her for the next few hours. It's fine."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, now go."

They watch their father move to leave, and hesitant. Afraid to let Tsuru out of his sight for long.

"No harm will come to her," Yagura promises.

The man stares at the fourth for a moment to long, and then nods. Heads for the door, before he can change his mind.

And as the door closes Tsuru drops down, and pushes the chair over, scrapping the floor. Her small form settling in next to her sibling, after some squirming.

"You play a child fair better then I did," he mutters into his hand, still amused.

"Though your humor could use some work," Kisame says, folding his arms.

She huffs. "I'm doing the best I can, Chomper. Most children aren't that funny, outside of observational humor."


	2. DFS Chapter 1

Chapter One

Her father's friend scowls as Tsuru plucks the cords again. Her motions stiff, and mechanical. So unlike her siblings playing.

The woman had been so insistent, so sure that she would excel as Isano had. As if blood, was enough to ensure success.

A man sighs, entering the room. "Just let the girl go home, Mutsuki."

"She can do it, she just refuses," the woman insists again.

"Stubborn brat," Tsuru can almost imagine her spitting.

Tsuru nearly snorts at the image. Something she doubts the man sitting in front of them would appreciate. Her teacher, really would snarl then.

Being respectful, mattered in these situations.It was one of the few things, Isano had successfully drilled into her. The old clans support, was important to her family after all. Was important to this woman's.

When they were alone, though.

Well, Tsuru would have her revenge.

"Such an evil expression," the man chides, removing her hands from the guitar like instrument.

Touma, she reminds herself. Trying to focus on anything but the heat creeping up her cheeks.

"That is better."

"Now flutter your eyelashes when you look up, as if peeking up. Askance."

"Yes. That is right."

He frowns, looking at her teacher. "The girl clearly has other talents. Is teaching her beyond this, really worth it?

"I cannot give up. Not now."

"Is this, about that bet with the other teachers?"

"No!" the woman blurts, far to quickly. "It's about my reputation, as a professional."

Tsuru does laugh at that. Long sleeve, hiding the lower half of her face.

The man's smile, is surprisingly soft as he gazes down on her.

Almost friendly.

0o0o0

Her hands still smart, and Tsuru knows she'll regret it, but she cannot wipe the silly grim from her face.

She is near bouncing.

"How was your day?" Isano queries, as she enters the office. Far to blaise, for the news that has surely reached them before her.

Wisely staying out of reach, Tsuru hums. "The best I've had in awhile, big sister."

Her sibling frowns, as the fourth makes cutting motions behind her back. The woman still sensitive about her current form.

Tsuru remembers her cousin's struggle, years ago. It was such a silly thing, to worry about when pregnant.

"I got an invitation to tea, from one of the clan heads. The old head of the police force."

Her siblings still, the nervous energy in the room disappating. Becoming bewilderment.

"Mutsuki did not mention that."

Tsuru thrusts her bag of goodies forward. "He asked me, after we met at the vegetable stand. Saw, i had gotten the same things as his wife."

"He called me a terror, he would like to see more of."

"In a less creepy way of coarse," she reassures, catching her brothers expression.

"Of coarse."

Isano sighs, moving to sit in front of her husband. Motions for Tsuru to join them. "Well, we will have to work on your deportment then. Touma's wife, appreciates proper form, and you still slouch, when no one is looking."

"She will like you stories though. The one about the blue bird will amuse her. Be sure to mention it, when she brings up her mongrel. She dotes on that little beast as if it were a human."

"Father will be joining her as well, I assume?" he asks, motioning for Tsuru to hand him one of the sweet buns in her bag.

Tsuru blinks, now reaching for her own. "Would it be weird to go alone?"

"A show of trust, husband could do wonders for our relationship with their family," Isano comments. Leaning over the desk, to brush the crumbs from his lips. "Our alliance with the more violent clans, makes them uneasy. The stealing of another vessal from beneath their noses as well, hasn't done you any favours. They believe you are grooming him to take over."

"Then there is the issue of you encouraging, non-clan members to aim for higher ranks."

"You believe, they will try to pump Tsuru for information."

"You keep Tsu-chan so close, that would be most people's intial goal, but no. They will try to influence her in other ways. Encourage her to marry into the family, especially if they grow as fond of her as i hope."

"It wouldn't be a terrible idea either," Isano says, turning to Tsuru.

"No, not going to happen," Tsuru says, waving her hands in front of her. "I'm not marrying a stranger, just because you say so."

"You would make father happy Tsu-chan, unbelievably so and the clan would treat you well. Keep you closer than we can. They are fond of the softer arts after all, and woman of mixed blood. It makes child bearing, easier."

"And they wouldn't be strangers, Tsu-chan. Not really."

Hazel eyes meet more loving ones. "She would never have to fight on the front lines."

Tsuru takes the time to lick her fingers clean, knowing it will draw both of their attention. Their disgust.

She smiles, thinking of Sachihiro-nii's slights. All his efforts, to make them squirm.

"Well.. By that time, I'll be able to handle myself."

0o0o0

Amid the tall, round buildings and the smaller store fronts they move.

Tsuru waves at people she knows in passing, mainly vendors, members of the Awadatchi run police force and other shinobi as she sits upon Kisame's shoulder. Most of the civilians around them scatter, eying the large man warily. A few of the braver ones call out greetings.

Tsuru smiles.

This is not the world she would of chose, given the choice but there are more people on the streets as each year passes. Sometimes she even carries back their whispers back to Yagura-nii, or the newest gossip and he seems inordantly pleased.

Other days, Yagura runs his fingers through his hair and has Tsuru tell him what she remembers of battle tactics during the Second World War.  
Things she heard her father ranting about, as his medals grew dusty on the mantel and moths batted at his dress clothes, hidden in plastic. His breath reeking of cheap whiskey. The radio in the background, broadcasting as it always did.

Tsuru doubts that many of the maneuvers will be much use without major developments in technology, but stranger things had happened. And war her brother said never changed, just the people's faces fighting it. Then, there was also the magic like properties of chakra. Chaos theory.

And Yagura knew more about this world then her, the bloody battlefields his shinobi inhabited so she cannot be sure.

She is still learning about this world.

Discovering her place withen it.

0o0o0

Days pass, and Tsurus grows bored. Isano having ousted her from the confines of their library, and her father forbidden her from training beyond their allotted time.

The more rebellious side of her character, takes it as a challenge.

Still, it is to early in the say to bother the people she has in mind. The sun barely over the horizon. Air, still bearing the chill from the night before and the fogs toddler like fingers, still creeping in. Insistent on touching everything.

Tsuru stretches her arms out over her head, aiming for that familiar pop. "Do you think, they'll have decent squid today, Chomper? Or do you think it's to it's to early in the season?"

"Some of the aunties got some in the market yesterday."

"Ao-chan must of been hap-"

The jostling surprises her, and Tsuru slams her arm around Kisame's temple, forming a ridiculous new head piece. Her other hand ready to gouge eyes.  
Juzo's Biwa leans down. Hair damp, from his morning bath.

Tsuru reaches out. An excited sound betray her, and the swordsman shares a conspirally grin.

"Now if you can convince the others to hold down Jinpachi down," he says, in a voice that always reminds her all to much of her late grandfather. "You will of caught us all."


	3. DFS Chapter 2

Chapter Two.

Many of the other anbu hate shadowing the girl, ensuring the lord fourths pride, and joy is not kidnapped and used for leverage.

Hisoka does not mind.

She is an odd child who does odd things, but that is all she is, no matter what they whisper.

And what the girl lacks in height she makes up for in cunning, which he finds endlessly entertaining.

From the corner of the large expanse of an office, he watches their little Tsu-chan lay across one of the bookshelves. The one in question situated near the door. For weeks she has   
done this, waiting patiently for the others to get used to the sight. Shinpachi in particular.

At first, it mearly draws his bored eye.

The slight twitch. The tenseness of her body as the auburn haired man enters. Small, barely callused hand moving down to switch books. Texts no child should look for, let alone enjoy. He would believe the fourth had switched the covers, had he not sought them for reference.

Perhaps her mind simple wanders, as childrens were bound too.

She winks, suddenly. Tapping at a seal placed on one of the books and asks him to hand her another text from a lower shelf. An uneasiness settles within him.  
He catches a glimpse of the woman she will one day be.

The swordsman turns, and the girl bares her teeth at him, in the mockery of a smile. Something, Hisoka has never seen her present to any of the other seven.  
He wonders what the man has done to offend the easy-going child.

"Good afternoon Shinpatchi-san," she murmurs, in that too sweet voice.

"Girl," he replies, dismissive of the unblooded child.

His first mistake.

She snorts, and goes back to reading the new book or so it seems. He catches her wandering gaze.

Another month passes, and they continue with the same pattern.

Eventually, Shinpatchi stops facing her, and the girl's eyes gleam.

She waits, like any good shinobi. For that moment.

And when it comes...

Hisoka is prepared.

He shifts closer to his charge, as she leans forward. Stretches out her arm towards the man, covered in dried blood.

The lord fourth nodding to Shinpatchi in his usual manner.

And then the world is thrown into chaos.

Books scatter, scrolls fly and his eyes burn, as the smoke fills the room.

Tsu-chan clings to his chest. A kunai pressing into his shoulder blades. A trail of bandages hanging over their shoulders.  
They are both missing some hair, he is sure.

The smell, worse than burning flesh, or weeping wounds

The lord fourth holds the man responsible by his throat, as the other anbu deal to the collatoral.

"You've been sloppy lately, Jinpatchi. Far more than usual," Yagura chides, letting him loose. "I'm disappointed."

"I told you it would work!" Tsu-chan crows, drawing their gaze as she shifts against his chest. The bandages, brandished like a great prize.

The lord fourth smiles indulgently, as he always seems too at scenes like this, and motions for fuming Shinpatchi to help clean up. "You did."

"You should go inform Juzo-San. I bet he would like to hear of your success."

The child knods, grinning victoriously over the fuming swordsman.

"Ah, and don't forget to thank your savior.

"As if I ever would, big brother."

"Onwards, my noble anbu," the little crane says, pointing towards the door. Resisting his half-hearted attempts to detach her. "And I will serve us pie."

"I even made your favorite."

"And what about me?" the fourth asks, suddenly. "I love pie."

"Isano is supposed to be bring some for the rest of you, if Eito-nii hasn't discovered it first."

0o0o0

The smell of baked goods, draws him into the smaller room.

His father stands over the counter, hesitating.

"So that is how, little sister bribed you," Eito says, drawing closer to investigare the box. Maybe slip off, with the whole thing when his father isn't looking.

"You've really set tongues wagging old man," he continues, picking up the nearest tart and popping the whole thing in his mouth. He closes his eyes. Savors the mix of sweetness, that slips into something more sour.

His hands wring. "I know. I'm worried."

"I fear your sister will draw far to much attention to herself."

"She will be fine. Like Isano, Tsu-chan will survive it."

"She is hardly at the point Isano was."

"She also has nothing to prove. Our shadows mean nothing to her. I doubt she will make the same mistakes."

0o0o0

"You're still nervous?" Eito whispers, pulling Tsuru into a hug.

She nods into his vest. The familiar scent of ink, and new paper wafting beneath her nose.

"They are just other children, Tsuru-kun," Yagura reminds her. The Lord Fourth standing beside her sister, and his very pregnant wife. Her father stiff beside them. "You'll do fine."

She doubts that. She really does.

Adults rarely noticed children, the way that other children did. And now, she was about to be thrown into a horde of them.

Still, Tsuru forces herself self to look up, and widen her eyes slightly. Fake the stars, that came so naturally to others in his presence. "If you think so big brother! I will do my best!"

Eito winces at the volume. Tsuru does too, and her elders share a look.

This had been the hardest part of their plan.

She turns, her pulse betraying her and looks out into the crowd. People slowly gathering, for the new academy year.

Civilians with nervous parents wait near the gates. Still, half-believing they can convince their children this is not the life for them, or maybe holding them there, because it is the only one.

Other children stand alone, faces fixed and more wait, in various groups with their backs to the walls. The oldest near the edges, standing guard. Recruits she assumes, from the orphanage, and streets. Lured just as Momochi-San had been, with promises of a better life. A better chance of survival.

Perhaps even seeking a purpose, like the third born sons and daughters of the merchant clans stilled clothed in their parents riches. Children who would otherwise be cast away, or pushed to the side, in favor of their siblings.

Or power like those from the noble leniages, hovering near the middle. Desperate to noticed in all their finery.

And the children, like her. Breed for great, and terrible things.


	4. DFS Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Aside from the children of noble blood or well off families, most of the students seem to avoid her.

With one other exception, the Kaguya. Strange boys, with pale skin and piercing eyes.

People her father said had archaic values, with disapproval lacing his tone.

The clans woman relegated to roles of priestess, and mother, unless showing promise and even that was rare. Their noses turned up at the medic-nin and docters, when help was offered to aid the breeching women. The smell of burning flesh, and hair often wafting out of their compound.

And all Tsuru sees is three boys bristling under the man's tutelage.

Struggling with the written work, while tying with the other clan members for strength and the orphans for determination. When she helps them quietly though, they do not blink.

And on the twelfth day their teacher pops up beside them, and they glower.

"You should be focusing on your own work," Katsugoro-sensei states, slamming his fist down onto Tsuru's desk. The wood creaking beneath it's weight.

She lifts her head, and acknowledges the man cooly. "If you raise your hand, you will see i finished both sides of the paper."

He slaps her.

Tsuru laughs as her head swings back. Cheek stinging, and marked with the same red shade as his palm. "My siblings hit harder."

He strikes her again. The crack of skin contacting skin even louder.

"Really? Haven't you heard you catch more flies with honey then vinegar?"

"You sound more stupid then you think, girl," he growls. "You sure you want to continue?"

"If it means educating people, and helping strengthen the village for big brother, yes."

The man pauses, surprised.

"You're the one Umeyū-san was talking about," he grumbles, dragging a hand across his face. "I should of known."

"Go sit by those brats," he points, towards the children of high ranking families clustered together.

"And you'll be running an extra twenty laps for that defiance. Every single, fucking day."

0o0o0

Tsuru watches some of the children's shoulders slump as the doors close. A bin full of hanbō pushed closer to them, it's small wheels turning on the stone floor. Furiously.  
A weapon they will use for the two years in the academy, before graduating to live steel and then specializing in the last year.

Yagura had warned her before hand, but Tsuru honestly prefered them.

She steps forward from the line to accept the weapon from Katsugoro-sensei.

"Thank you," she says softly, following it with a slight bow.

0o0o0

Tsuru dodges the boys strike, rather them attempt to block. The incoming fist thrown with to much weight behind it.

As he stumbles, she catches his side and the boy howls in frustration.

Hitting another child is strange, and far easier then expected. Maybe it because Tsuru has always been vindictive, and the blows hurt.

When the boy catches himself he isn't smiling anymore.

She lets her foot slide, attempting to remember the motions.

Tsuru knows she won't win, but she won't let theclan heir get a clean victory over her either.


	5. DFS Chapter 4

Chapter Four.

The first, few months are the hardest.

Tsuru can hardly keep her head from falling in her supper dishes each night, and knows without a doubt, if it does her sister will be there to take a picture.  
Especially if the rice grains stick to her face.

Their father would even send it to their uncle in the capital, with words just sort of cooing and then, use it in the morning as an excuse to pull her from the extra lessons.  
Still, she cannot stop her head from bobbing. Her eyes from feeling heavy.

The dimmed lights, from being comforting.

And every time she looks up, she sees Yagura's laughing eyes.

0o0o0

The days seem to blur together, and Tsuru's body always seems to ache. Even with the extra training she's receiving, it is hard to keep up with many of the more diligent clan families.

Her eyes grow tired, during the scheduled breaks and she falls into a restless, fifteen minute sleep.

The other children usually willing to ignore her, in favour of a drearier atmosphere, and easier target.

Or so it had seemed.

Tsuru startles awake a week later, to a loud yelp and terrified looking head, slammed down beside hers.

"Apologise, to the priestess," the eldest of the Kaguya demands. Voice stern.

"I an sorry! So sorry!" the boy, Hasumi cries out. The other child's nails dogging onto his skull.

Tsuru wipes at her face, unsure of her eyes and then beams, up at the other child. Suddenly relieved.

"Ah, Subarou. Thank you," she says.

The boy nods. "And the heir? What shall I do with him?"

"Nothing, my friend. I shall."

The blonde plastered to Tsuru's desk panics, and she target drags a kunai from the pouch at her side.

Smiles, without hesitation as she draws the weapon across the hand, inches from the his face. Pressing harder, because the edge is slightly worn and she had forgotten to sharpen it. 

Still blood, wells up as it should below the knuckles.

"Next time, you try to touch me outside of lessons," she warns. "I will take your fingers."

0o0o0

Coloured by age, bruises have bloomed across her skin in horrid, unflattering hues.

Eito is furious.

His hands shake as he helps her from the round, wooden tub. The scent of salt, heavy in the air and the pine needles she had added clinging, stubbornly to her form.

"I should tell father! He would put an end to this farce!" her brother hisses, just above a whisper.

Eito wouldn't Tsuru knows, no matter what he says.

"You've come home with worse," she replies, fighting back the tears threatening to spill. His fingers having found a particularly tender spot.

"I'm not six!"

"The medic said I'll be fine."

"You're in pain! And that medic is an idiot!"

"And is he the one that told you to soak in this hot of water? You could of went into shock or passed out, if the heat got to be to much. The pain."

She ignores his initial question. "I didn't."

Her aunt had never, when she bathed in vanilla after a bad fight with her husband.

"I can stay home a few days, let father think I'm sick again. A few of the other kids are o-"

His forehead bumps hers. "You're going to damage your body of you keep this up. What use will it be then?"

0o0o0

Tsuru winces, as she hears another child cry out, struck by the edge of the instructers tambō.

One of the civilian members, by the sound of their response.

No clan kid would dare make such a sound.

She forces herself to push forward in the darkness. Toe to heel. To breath with her stomach instead of her thorax as the man had insisted, multiple times.

Tsuru's struggles.

It is an awkward feeling, to have to breath in such a way. Though quieter she admits, if properly done. Less likely to draw the teacher's ire. And Tsuru's has preferred that lately, with the attention the man has been paying her. Going far further, than she would ever consider acceptable to a child, even a Shinobi one.

And it isn't something she can change, not now.

A couple more steps, each carefully made and Tsuru stills.

Feels the familiar dandy long legs crawling in her brain. The small ripples of gently, disturbed water. Her brother calls it a slight sensitivity to chakra and tells her, it will probably increase as she ages. Heads out into the world with more stimuli, and greater dangers.

Tsuru waits, as she always seems to for the inevitable.

Two children brush pass her. The first better coached than the other, and the latter to close to the ground, with too many points of contact. A terrible idea in this kind of terrain. There is to much debris, and far to many concealed traps.

He yelps. Then screams, as wood impacts against his back. Cracks.

Another non-clan member lost, Tsuru thinks as the sound carries throughout the room. Sets them all on further edge.

"Four minutes left," a voice calls, from the darkness.

Tsuru moves to the left to avoid the prone figure, and looming teacher. Barely darker, than the world around him.

Encounters another two steps away.

A hand clamping over her mouth.

A cold stamp pressing against her cheek.

"Safe," they whisper in her ear.


	6. DFS Chapter 5

Chapter 5

On the fifth of what would of been December, Isano goes into labour in the early, snow lit hours of morning.

Tsuru wakes with a start.

Feels the vibration of panicked feet on the wooden floor outside, and thinks immediately of ducking beneath the table. An instinct drilled into her from her first childhood. Something, the frequent earthquakes this island had only seemed to worsen.

Instead, she forces herself to stand. Let the quilt draped over her shoulders fall, and pool on the floor. Hand digging all the while for a weapon, to fight the ogers of the day.

Voices growing louder, just down the hall.

Tsuru stumbles forward, and her father bursts in, like all the action heroes of old. Cutting an impressive figure in the half light.

Tsuru thrusts her arms out, as he moves to scoop her form up.

A trail of blood, beyond them.

0o0o0

Birth was an ugly thing up close, no matter what anyone told you. All blood, and shit, and broken flesh.  
And then there was the pain.

Tsuru watches her sister struggle not to push, and to continue breathing as the birthing aid instructs. The medics still not here.

Damp, unbound Scarlett O'hara colored hair lies in tangles around Isano's pinched, oval face. Moon marked skin no indication of her current health, as the woman's eyesbrows only seem to knot further. The amount of sweat seeping from her pores, increasing. Her mouth setting in a harder line. One more angry, than anguished  
The grip her sibling has on Tsuru's wrist, more than punishing andbound to leave reminders, even wrist bands cannot hide.  
Tsuru almost cries out, with tears welling in her eyes as Isano's adjusts her grip. She is most grateful when the pale, spiky head of her other sibling pops in.

"She needs a cesarean?" he asks, joining them. Face marked by worry.

Tsuru's gladly relinquishes her sister's hold to him.

"You can't be- ah! in her-"

"Fifteen minutes ago," Tsuru interrupts. "Where the hell are your people?"

"There was an incident-"

"Stop ignor-"

"I don't care. Get them here now, or i will do it myself."

"You can't!" Isano cries, with flint sparked eyes. The rest of the woman in the room, staring are Tsuru. Frozen.

"I can."

"I've watched," she hedges, pretending to look uneasy. "Practiced on a few of the pigs, after they were butchered."

It had been years ago when Adelaide thought time travel might still be possible, and midwifery an indespensible skillset for a single woman, wanting to travel.  
It was something she had been to embarrassed to tell her family, so she never had.

Yagura lies a hand loving on his wife. "What do you need?"

"Another hand. Get Sachihiro-nii. He can keep her stable, while I cut the baby out. It won't be pretty."

"You sure?"

"No, but the bleedings getting worse, and these woman are to nervous. They'll screw up worse."

"Go clean up then," Yagura orders, before turning to the men that had followed him.

0o0o0

Hours later and in the morning light, Tsuru can almost call the experience something kinder. Her sister broken by the birth. Tears forming in the corner of her eyes and then rolling as she takes the child, her body trembling.

His heart steady.

It was the people that made birth beautiful. The survivors.

Minutes past, and then drag on like hours spent chewing on cheap, wax candy. Tasteless after the juice had left them and not a very enjoyable way to pass the time, but something.  
Tsuru, would give anything to be back there now, picking one out.

Her family watching her, when they are not staring at Isano, and the child.

Making her nervous.

Wonder if she did the right thing.

Eventually Tsuru leaves, before they can say anything.

0o0o0

For years it had been a running joke in the village, that their families inability to cook was the reason why so many restaurants, and stalls were still in business.  
Perhaps that is why some of the owners, and their people take pity on her. Allowing Tsuru to watch them work, and praising her own attempts when she brings them in, or taking the time to advise her.

Of them, Fukami Sorata is her favorite.

His pub smoky, and always filled to the brim with loud, hungry people. Civilian, and Shinobi a like.

It was an easy place to disappear into.

The slender man with short, graying brown hair, and cloudy blue eyes grins down at her as Tsuru pushes up the bar, enclosing his large wooden counter. The motion pulling at the scars on his face. "Have you come to listen to me gossip?" he teases.

Tsuru smiles back, and lifts up her bag. "I brought something for Kana-san, and us to share. Maybe a few of the customers if you are feeling generous."

"Oh?" one of Fukami's regulars says, perking up. "Are they more of those sweets you like to make?"

"No, I tried to make some green pepper jelly, and goat cheese. I brought some cornbread cups, to serve then in."

The mans face scrunches up. "I'll pass."

"Just in case?" she inquires, feeling the tension leave her shoulders.

This was normal. Safe.


	7. DFS Chapter 6

Apparently she has earned the founding families respect.

Her marks, in the above average category in all but one subject.

"You should accept the other children's invitations, Tsuru-chan," Isano says, rifling through the growing stack of scrolls on the counter.

She shakes her head. "I have other things to do."

"Then invite a few of them over to join you. It is important to make allies in the great families."

"Father wants me to avoid them."

"Father also forgets the importance of connections in his old age."

0o0o0

Tsuru feels ridiculous standing amongst them, when she's tried so hard to avoid interacting with children. Well, outside of helping with schoolwork.  
So she goes for honestly. "I'm not sure if you are being forced to befriend me, or not."

They wince, and she barely manages to conceal her own. "I'm-"

"You think we want to hang out with a baby?" one of the Yuki ask, Marise she remembers. The boy looking down at her, and Tsuru has flashbacks of children sitting on top of jungle gyms and monkey bars. "We only talk to you, because of who your brother is."

A few of the others nod.

It should hurt, the rejection. Tsuru knows they're expecting it, but she can't help but feel relief.

And it shows.

"Oh good! That makes things so much easier," Tsuru comments, the corners of her eyes crinkling. Probably the first real smile they've seen.

She turns on her heel without prompting, planning to return to her seat and then recalls her manners. Glancing over her shoulder she calls, "please thank your parents for their consideration."

0o0o0

Hōzuki Mangetsu is surprised to see the Lord Fourth's gray head lowered on his arms, muffled laughter erupting from him. His younger sister seated across from him. Her cheeks tinged pink.

She turns to him as he approaches.

A small sandle is pressed into his palm. "Hōzuki-san. That's not considered a weapon, right?"

"No," he replies, listening to the other mans laughter grow louder. He then pauses. "Why?"

She points.

"Cause I'm going to throw it at him!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are enjoying the story. What do you like about it?


	8. DFS Chapter 7

They don't seem to think Tsuru notices them, as she practices with the hanbō.

"Are you just going to stare?" she finally asks, turning towards her elder brothers.

Yuichi hesitates, before stepping into the room. A frown on his face. "Yagura-san taught you that form?"

Sachihiro follows. Moving through the pain as he did the other night, and settles on the floor across from her. His left side one large bruise.

"Yes. He said I was like him, and to slight for the other one."

"For now," Yuchi says, adjusting her form.

Sachihiro points towards her feet. "You need to move her left foot over more."

"Yes, just a sliver."

"And stop using that clubbing motion, it does not suit you. Aim for the pressure points," he continues, pointing to spots on his arm. "There is a reason, those Hyuuga bastards are a pain to fight."

"I thought you were near Iwa, again?"

"Plans changed."

0o0o0

Isano shuffles towards the kitchen, drawn by the smell of frying food. The loud pops, and blistering batter covering her approach.

"You're being ridiculous," her husband says, as Tsuru's skims a ladle over the surface of a pot a few feet away. Her gaze focused on the thermometer. Shoulders stiff.

"I know, but can you let it go? Everyone else has."

"Because you keep clamming up. Running away. I never thought I would see you do that."

"You're acting as their spy, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"I didn't want Isano to die."

"Why would she die?"

"People forget all the time how dangerous pregnancy is. How doctors can do everything right, and a person can still die. How sometimes a body just goes, no, not going to happen."

"It wasn't a vision?"

Isano stiffens. Meets her husbands gaze, and catches sight of two fingers forming the command, for silence.

"No. A feeling, but you can't tell them that."

Had things been different, Isano would of found herself jealous of the bond her sibling seemed to share with her husband.

The things they should of shared.

"Can't tell us what?" Isano asks, entering the kitchen. Tsuru's jumps, and then scowls at Isano. Her chakra, no longer suppressed.

"If there are any leftovers, Tsuru was planning to make bento," Yagura replies, in a chipper tone as he pilfers another piece.

Tsuru swats at him, and hisses, "Watch the baby. The oil's spitting."

"Love, could you take Satoruo?"

Isano shakes her head. "I need both hands to finish this batch off, husband."

"Only this batch," Tsuru says, motioning. "Grab another rack, and you can take this one. Hurry up. The others will be home soon."

"Too late!" Eito cheers. Ruddy, brown irises focused on the sizzling tempura, as Isano obeys her siblings request. "Does that mean she has to split half with me, the sibling who loves you the most?"

"If you can take her on, sure."

Isano smirks and holds her prize higher, out of her brothers reach as she walks away.

"So mean. The both of you."

"Do you need me to recommend you, an adult?" Yagura queries as Isano settles behind him, and the baby.


	9. DFS Chapter 8

Sachihiro arrives first, his clothes pressed and his face clean shaven. It startles Tsuru, and she almost runs into another one of the students, walking just ahead of her.

Yuichi appears behind him, looking bored.

"You have many siblings," Subarou says in wonder, stopping beside her still form. The two other Kaguya clan members, Kotatsu and Montaro peering over his shoulders.

Tsuru turns to the small group. "Is that strange?"

"No," he admits. "In our clan, two children are considered a blessing. To have more survive to adulthood... is rare."

"You are very lucky," he continues, his face open and earnest.

"I know."

"Are all your siblings shinobi?" Kotatsu queries, as her brothers try to wave them over. The men's eyes flashing, like wild birds catching sight of their share of the fisherman's haul.

Tsuru swallows before answering.

She has to be careful. Her family had been more invasive lately, obsessed with the idea of Tsuru making friends her own age.  
Marise not counting, as he was still avoiding their home like the plague, and disappearing into alleyways when sighted with to much noise.

"Yes," Tsuru reveals, brushing a loose hair back. Not relishing the thought of giving her two older siblings info to lord over Isano, who was the worst of the lot. "My sister has largely retired from service since she gave birth though, and Eito-nii is preparing to take over for father."

"Would you to meet them? Both of my brothers are rather accomplished in their fields."

Tsuru watches the boys stiffen, as she had hoped. Irises clashing with each other, as words pass without being spoken.

"We are expected," Montaro warns, still looking at the other two boys. His shoulders squared, as if expecting an argument.

Kotatsu sighs. "He is right, Subarou. Our fathers would not be pleased if we are late again."

The youngest of the three frowns, and toys with his belt. Fingers running over the heavily embroidered fabric, with patterns and details beyond what their talented Yuichi could produce.  
"Another day then, Tsuru-San," the boy decides, after a few seconds. The fog, making his eyes glow eerily.

"I look forward to meeting them," he adds. "You're brothers look very strong."

Yagura had been right again.

Dutifully, Tsuru returns the compliment.

Turns to her fellow magpies as the Kaguya depart. Hopes, she can keep herself so busy it never becomes a possibility.

Children were always so much harder to loose.

0o0o0

There are days, Taiga struggles to tear away his eyes from his daughter. Afraid she will disappear.

Die, like the third they had cut from his wife's womb. A stiff, blue figure that seemed to be reaching for it's siblings still lingering inside the fleshy tomb.

And it only makes it harder, when that child now resembles her mother so.

Isano was just as beautiful, if more traditionally appealing then her striking sister. Inheriting his coloring and not his wife's curly, ash brown hair, or pale skin. Ruddy, river rock brown irises, instead of molten gold.

Taiga tries to tell himself that it shouldn't matter. He still loves them both, just as he loves all his children.

"Father?" the child asks. Her hand hesitating over the empty weapons pouch, as she reaches for another sharp instrument. The once white fabric wrapped around her fingers stained, and tinged with red. Most hours old.

She looks away, suddenly guilty. Her lips pursed.

"You do not need to practice so often," he chides, moving to help her collect the weaponry strewn about their courtyard. Towering, vegetation lined walls surround them. Spindly shoots, and tangling webs of green growth, spilling over as the warmer tempetures return. "I have already told your teachers, you will no be moving up a class as your siblings did."

"Why don't we go down to that new teahouse that has opened instead? I've heard they have excellent sweets."

"Can we order hojicha?" she asks, widening her eyes.

0o0o0

She holds the brat down, face plastered into the thick mud. One hand pinned beneath him, and the other skewered to the post beside them. Kunai glinting in the harsh artificial light.  
The children stand around her wide eyed.

"There are other ways to rid the world of prejudice, Tsuru-chan."

"I'm aware," she says, yanking on the childs hair. Pulling him from the mud. "Fear makes people stupid."

"It is a weakness," she tells the boy. "Being unable to work with someone who would willingly aid you."

0o0o0

Eito flips through his fathers meticulously kept records, listening with half an ear to his family.

Satoru bundled up, and chewing on a soft, rubber shark beside him. It's deep indigo blue coloring similar to his Hoshigaki's Kisame's summons.  
He glances at the clock, on the library wall.

Isano should be back soon, to take the boy with her for daily visit with Yagura.

His sister having planned to take along food from his favorite place, but Eito doubts she expected it to take this long. Minutes from their precious hour already lost.  
Tsuru-chan was in the shower, washing off the days filth. Her voice carrying some notes over the steady stream of water, that beat against the far wall, and tile. Some nonsense song about a plush toy, and a crippled boy who had lost his father in a wagon of some sort.  
He makes a note, to ask her to sing it to him later.

Yuichi bangs his knee when he sits down, jolting Eito. He scowls at the man, who simply plucks the book from his hand. "You read as much as our ototou does."

"Another incident?" Sachihiro asks, facing their father. He places his cup down next to brothers. Ignoring the coaster pushed towards him.

"Savage," the eldest of them grumbles. Eito's research still held out of reach.

Their father sighs. "She came home covered in mud today."

"And apparently our little stork is gaining a sharp beak. Some of the other children are afraid of her," he adds.

"She hardly seems the type, father."

"I know. She's normally so well behaved."

Eito almost snorts.

He had caught their little sister tossing bird treats at a hidden Kuriarare the other day, knowing full well some of the younger summons would give chase.

"Has any one bothered to ask her why she did it?" he finally asks, meeting each of their eyes. "Or do you plan to ambush her all at once?"


	10. DFS Chapter 9

Fighting with people who are both larger, and stronger than you is always difficult. You have to be willing to go where it hurts, or learn to move.

Most of the other children learn this quickly, but there are always stragglers.

And they are why Tsuru's using the other children as shields, and attacking where she can.

"Keep in formation," the eldest of the second years yells, shoving the blond back towards her.

Tsuru dodges behind an annoyed Kaguya and snorts, adjusting his arm to aim for the boys weak side.

Then she's gone again, snapping at anothers ankle and that one's throat. Wooden staffs leaving only dark marks, and harsh sounds.

The second years growing less gleeful with each passing second.

0o0o0

Picking fights was encouraged among the children here.

Competition.

Tsuru watches Hoshigaki Ibara slam her fist into a member of the mountain clans, Genya. Chest heaving as he ducks and tries to use her movement to force the girl to the ground. The only way he'll win.

A few of the other children linger, watching them with eager eyes.

Children who's parents only encouraged them. Proud as they left these halls, full of scrapes and bruises, and big, wide smiles.  
They remind Tsuru of her father in the before times, a man so focused on success. Achievement.

His eyes, when the teachers praised her.

0o0o0

She blinks, when she finds herself surrounded by members of her brother's council. The men and woman from the founding families, and clans staring her down.

"Would you read us aloud, what you were writing?"

They look suspicious so she sighs, handing her notebook to the man instead. "It's not finished."

The Awadatchi's eyebrows raise.

Tsuru isn't sure if it's be use of the defiance, or the fact it's filled with what she remembers of Lewis's Carroll's poetry.

Perhaps it was a mistake. It isn't like Satoru-kun would care, all the boy did was roll around, and stare into space.

Still after clearing his throat, the man begins to read the snippet of half forgotten poetry aloud, "They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;  
They pursued it with forks and hope;  
They threatened its life with a railway-share;  
They charmed it with smiles and soap.  
They shuddered to think that the chase might fail."

His brows furrow. "You wrote this?"

"It's in my hand, isn't it?" she tosses back, refusing to look away. "I'm writing it for Sato-"

"What are the next line's?" he demands.

"And the Beaver, excited at last,  
Went bounding along on the tip of its tail,  
For the daylight was nearly past."

"I'm stuck there," she admits.

"Can you draw this beaver?"

Tsuru frowns, but picks up a pencil anyway and steals an empty sheets from her father's desk. "Eito, and Sachihiro are better at this."

"It looks like a big furry rodent with long teeth, and a flat, round tail," Tsuru remarks as she pushes the pencil to the paper. "And it bounces on its tail like this."

One of the Yuki, tries to hide a his smile behind his sleeve as she demonstrates the motion.


	11. DFS Chapter 10

By March she's grown restless, and so Tsuru spends hours tracking down the seven swordsman, and their apprentices in her free time.

They rarely grow wary by her approach now, just open their hand for whatever she has brought.

Hōzuki, Kurosuki and Biwa are her favorite targets. Momochi as well. They don't bother to test her like Kuriarare, ruffle her hair like Akebino, or threaten her like Munashi.  
And Ringo-san is dying, so Tsuru tries to spend more time with her. Just telling the woman stories, and listening when she can.

Kisame is also in the running, but it's not as fun when they know the truth.

Today, however she has found someone new.

Ao something.

He also knows the truth, but not about her.

0o0o0

Her brothers room is organized chaos, and Tsuru feels sorry for his coworkers when her brother takes over her father's tresorial duties.  
She pushes over a stack of papers and extra ink, so she can sit on the floor beside him. Leans against the man despite the heat.

Eito frowns, focusing on her. "A sling?" he queries.

"I need to learn to use both hands, and this is easier than the way Ringo-san learned."

The lines in his face deepen.

"I know it's better than breaking it, but father is going to kill me for encouraging you," he drawls, dragging a hand through his wavy hair.

"I want to survive."

"I know. You also need to have fun," he murmurs in thought. "Have you been using that chakra exercise I showed you?"

She nods and he smiles. "Good, get up. I have something to show you then."

0o0o0

"Your brat keeps giving me things!" Munashi Jinpatchi calls out, stalking into the Mizukages office. Tossing the neatly wrapped rice balls, and candy onto Yagura's desk. The last nearly sliding off. "Make her stop, or i will disregard that no harm order."

Kushimaru laughs. No, it is more of a loud, barking cackle, similar to that of a hyenas. "The girl probably feels sorry for you."

The man bristles. The anbu in the room shifting as his hand moves towards Shibuki's hilt.

"Little Tsuru-chan been giving us all things," Jinin points out before he can, pulling some items from beneath his cloak. "And don't act like you haven't let her corner you, Kuriarare. I saw you tuck away one of those poems away."

Head tilting, the blonde stops picking at his nails and looks up. "The child has talent. She should be rewarded."

Yagura almost laughs. Almost.

Instead of reacting though, Yagura forces his lips to remain in a neutral postion as he listens to the older man continue. "And as terrifying as your killing intent is Munashi, I doubt the child will stop. Tsuru-chan's such a sweet girl and is probably more terrified of you feeling left out."

God, if they only knew.


	12. DFS Chapter 11

Tsuru moves with a few of the girls, and prettier boys, following the woman's directions.

Her feet stumble on earth instead of gym tile, and laminate.

She is also younger. So much younger.

There are days Tsuru's torn between how natural the child-like acts have started to feel, and how she still views herself.

She wonders idly, as she twists the fan if this is how con artists, and police officers felt as they led different lives. Soldiers like her father when they returned home.

If this is what leaves so many shinobi mad.

The fracturing of a whole.

0o0o0

The thinner, inner walls allow sounds to carry well.

Isano enters the nursery, and catches her sister humming. An errie tune, slipping from her lips and filling the room. Satoru's chubby little fist reaching up, trying to grasp Tsuru's braid. The bound locks swinging precariously over the crib's ledge.

If she lets her eyes blur and the tune change, she can almost imagine their mother in Tsuru's place, rocking Eito.

Isano can almost imagine the excitement she felt, coming home to them.

0o0o0

Her sister tries to connect with strangers often, going out of her way to greet everyone who crosses her path. An inviting smile splayed across Tsuru's lips, one that encouraged people to talk and that said, look I'm harmless. Talk to me, I'll listen.

Not all of the attempts were successful of course, many ignored the child, but her sibling never complained. She pushed on. Hunted people, like they were another person's shogi pieces in some unknown game she needed to collect.

And Isano knows she avoids other children, and wonders if it is because a part of her sister subconsciously remembers that loss. Associates their prescense with pain.

Her birth isn't something often spoken of.

It isn't something Isano likes to remember either.

Isano can still smell the blood, something that remains more visceral in her mind than recent kills, or perhaps because of it. The horrible, heartrenching sounds. Her father shoving the medic aside, and trying to grasp his wife's hand.

Their mothers weak smile, when she realised nothing could be done.

Her apology.

The doctor cutting a third child from her sibling, after they were torn out, smeared with blood and other fluids. The two forms seperated only by a thin layer of flesh. She had thought her siblings monsters then, in that moment. For the next few years in Isano was feeling more honest.

Still, Isano watches her husband force Satorou into her sisters thin, weedy arms a week after his birth.

"Isn't he adorable?"

"He looks like a shriveled potato with eyes."

Watches Tsuru's lips part, to take a sharp intake of breath. Gold irises flickering to hers.

Eito laughing, as he adjusts the child in the girl's arms further.

Sometimes Isano thinks, her sister is seeking the bond she lost at birth. Trying so hard to bond with strangers to fill that void, to find those she lost.


	13. DFS Chapter 12

Shimura Danzo has been dead for eight years, and that is supposed to mean something, but Tsuru's not sure why.

Yagura doesn't tell her everything.

Sometimes it bothers her, not knowing who the other key players in events are.

She watches Kurosuki's mouth purse, as he carries her tucked under his arm. Her bag hanging loosely in his hand. "What is with the serious face, little bird?"

"Do you ever wonder how the war is going to end?"

"Yagura-dono says it will soon."

"Yuichi, and Sachihiro are in the hospital again."

"Are they going to die?"

"No."

"That's unfortunate. I would of enjoyed accompanying you to another funeral. What you said last time was beautiful."

0o0o0

Staring out into the world, and the beauty beyond the hidden village makes her ache.

The yearning, such a physical thing.

The person she had been still remembers the headlines about the sixty-seven year old woman, who had walked the appalachian trail, and had completed it more than once. The things Grandma Gatewood had said to the cameramen, and newspeople in plain, weather worn clothes but mostly, what she said she had been told by her father.

"Pick up your feet," the man had been reported to say, which was innocuous by itself. A simple reminder to keep the carpets from rolling up, but the woman had made it something more.

Something powerful, as she worked her way through the wilderness, and more, densly populated areas.

It had been enough to inspire her.

Addy had even followed in the elderly womans footsteps decades later, wearing down dozens of hiking boots. Accepting what change, had brought.

The discovery of all those moldering sports illustrated in her uncles, one of the greatest blessing Adelaide had ever received.

All the other records, in the library she had worked the near second.

And only her grandparents had seemed to understand when Addy disappeared every chance she got. The rest of her kin mumbling, and wringing their hands as they went about their normal, orderly lives. Expecting her to call at every stop.

Here, Tsuru thinks a lot more people understand.

But, the cost is also higher. A lot higher.

She meets Sachihiro's squirrelly eyes, so reminiscent of the ones Adelaide had seen, when she looked in the mirror then.

The ones, Tsuru imagines most of the missing-nin wear in private.

"Do you think, they will mind if we ask the fishman of they need a couple of extra hands?"


	14. DFS Chapter 13

Her fingers trace the words carved into the desk. Hundreds of names, and taunts and threats.

In front of Tsuru, Hoshigaki Asao tries to wedge in her name besides a relatives. For her, and many others it may be the only thing they are remembered for.

That is the world in which they live.

0o0o0

The festivals have grown, just as the amount of stalls and games.

Some of the children about to graduate the academy run past them with their friends.

Tsuru grins up at Raiga, pulling him towards the dancing area. Her family laughing behind them, enjoying the charged atmosphere. Biwa-san not bothering to hide his amusement at how uncomfortable his apprentice Ukataka is. The boys's arms tucked in Isano's, and her other other holding it in place.

She passes the barbecue stand. Kisame waving at them, his younger sister Akane at his side. Her sticky looking hands accepting more skewered meat.

It is a wonderful night, and Tsuru feels drunk.

The lights and fog, giving the streets a dream like feeling.

The silver and black and white making everyone look beautiful.

A high to remind the survivors of the coming exams, that life is worth living.

That this village is not completely awful.

0o0o0

Tsuru is surprised at how many people cut in to dance with her, and by the time she sees Kaguya Kotatsu approach she's breathless. Her mouth hurts from grinning.

Still, she takes his hand when it is offered.

"Are you having a good night?" he asks, politely. Far to politely.

Tsuru catches a glimpse of who see thinks might be his parents slip by.

"I love nights like these," she tells him. "The dancing, the music."

"Our clan was surprised to see how welcoming the people have been."

"Big brother wants everyone to have a good time," Tsuru reveals, moving with him. Their fingers entwined.

She does not mention the warning issued to the heads of multiple clans, and other parties.

Another reality of the world they lived in.


	15. DFS Chapter 14

Water is brutal.

Water has been known to score the very life from the land. A giant steel wool pad dragging along the earth.

It has also been known to seep into the earth, and cause pockets that swallowed homes like giant gaping maws. Everything gone in a quick gulp.

Here, it was an element Eito could harness.

And it seemed, so could his sibling.

0o0o0

She watches the child pace the halls, forbidden to leave the estate.

Every year the council gets uneasy when the academy exams begin.

The girl looks at Tsubame as she passes again. Her sweet face marred by the frown. "You really won't tell me what happened eight years ago, anbu-san?"

Tsubame shakes her head. It isn't her place to tell the child.

She hardly likes to remember being frozen in place, warm puss running down her legs. To scared to move as Momochi knelt in a pools of her friends blood. Tears streaming down his eyes. The Mizukage standing before them in all his glory.

Shouting at the audience, the council that he understood some death was necessary to make the children stronger, to inspire them, but not this pointless slaughter. That this was the reason they were losing valuable ninja.

That this kind of ignorance, and arrogance the boy displayed only made the village weaker. Vulnerable.

That they needed each other to survive.

Strength alone wasn't making the village prosper, he had continued. It was them working together, those with strength and those with potential, for a singular purpose. A better world for their precious people, for those who were important. For all of them.

Idealistic crap that pulled at Tsubame, even as he offered his hand to the future demon of the mist.

Told the boy he was more than a tool.

0o0o0

The man is tall and lanky, but Tsuru still fits behind him.

"Was that Awadatchi Touma?" Biwa-san asks as she presses herself further into the back of his knees. "What did you do?"

"I haven't done anything!" she whispers furiously. "The old man keeps hunting me down. Wanting me to sit his wife and their friends while they have tea."

Normally she would enjoy this, but Awadatchi Ren tended to bring her grandchildren along, and they were awful. Really awful. Constantly trying to pinch, and kick her when no one was looking.

"Your brother does not seem worried," Biwa-san points out. Watching the other man look him over suspiciously as he passes.

"Big brother thinks its hilarious," she whispers again when the Awadatchi clan symbol is out of sight. "He laughed at me, and said I needed to learn to suppress my chakra better. That this was good practice."

"He's right you know," the man says, stretching his arms up. The mist around them damp, and cool as they move together.

Tsuru wraps her fingers in the cloth of Biwa-sams pant legs, matching his shortened stride. "I know."

"It's just hard," she admits, her forehead wrinkling. "I think I have to much."

0o0o0

Ao avoids the child, because being near her feels like drowning. Like the current that pulls you closer to the rapids, and a waiting waterfall or a rip tide lurking under the surface, ready to drag you under.

So focused on the swift current, it rushes down your throat. Chokes you. A dreadful cold seeping into your bones.

The feel of the chakra had gotten better in the last few months, as the child's control had increased. A feat for someone so young, and with such large reserves. They are not as overwhelming as the Hoshigaki, true but far to large for child from a clanless background.

The Hozuki heirs seem to enjoy being near her though, subconsciously standing closer to the child.

He tracks from a distance, watching them leave the Mizikage's office.

The man inside like a beacon, whose light touches them all. His chakra calm, and steady and Ao always finds it reassuring. Though he would never admit that aloud.

And across the village, lies another one almost as large, but more like slime on a rock jutting out of the water, making it hard to grasp. Bubbles rising up, around it.


	16. DFS Chapter 15

Dense moss is a common sight, far more than grass, and most of what Tsuru's seen comes in patches between spruce trees.

She is not allowed to go far.

So when Sachihiro makes the announcement that the two of then would be making an excursion into the wilds, Tsuru practically vibrates.

She follows him eagerly past mat like vegetation, covering even the rocks and marvels at the multiple hues of lichen when the landscape slopes up, further into the spruce forest. 

Beyond the rocky hills that steadily become steeper, and sharper. The rock darker, more pourous.

Below them lie bird cliffs, trenches and valleys filled with long, winding rivers. Farmers growing barley on the hillsides, in volcanic rich soil.

When they reach the lowest one Tsuru digs her toes into the soil that allows the patches of thin, stalked branches, and birch like shrubs to grow in abundance.

Her brother then takes Tsuru further inland, following the branching streams. Grasses slowly replacing the bryophytes she has known since childhood, and sedges, and rush overtaking the other the creeping shrubs. Ferns. Moist mires, and strange, wet smelling marshes eventully greet them. Cress floating in the murky waters.

And after a few days, they begin to back track. Head towards the coast, past the river deltas and salt marshes.

Their final stop, the shore. It's ridges lined with thick mats of sea sandworth, and beautiful flowering oysterleaf.

0o0o0

A young, black-haired child tugs on Momochi-san's pants, and his face takes on that constipated look Tsuru associates with concealed emotion.

"The kid's been shadowing him for weeks," Kisame tells her, as if its a secret. "I think you might of been replaced."

Tsuru snorts, wrapping her arms around his head. Blocking his view. "I've got brains, muscles and a man with a good heart right here. Why would I need anyone else?"

Kisame's green skin flushes.

"I'm not a good man."

"You are," she insists. "Even better than me. You just haven't realised it yet."

His hesitant smile slowly becomes fierce. "You are going to break a lot of men's hearts one day, Tsuru-chan. Were you a terror in your last life?"

"As long as its not yours," Tsuru answers, and then shrugs. "I don't know, maybe. The person i was then was to afraid to let people get that close. If they did, i panicked and i ran. Far."


	17. DFS Chapter 16

In that life, Addy had seen things.

Watched people walk through the shades that lingered on the streets, dark forms distorted by their flesh, and bone. Voices unheard, even as they begged and howled. Ripped at the mortal shells.

And then there the ones that coiled around people like Adelaide, stretched out like warm bubble gum. Over and over. Fingers clasped over their eyes.

Spirits that followed, trying to grasp hands. Catch wisps of wayward hair. Kiss cheeks.

And here there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Tsuru watches the steps, as she climbs towards the temples grand arch. Sachihiro at her side. A comforting figure in these dim, gray hours.

There the church had always had figures kneeling beneath the statues and sitting in the long, off white pews. Light from the crudely stained glass cutting through them. Not holes, but streaks.

And surely if there were any of the lingering dead, they would be praying here. Begging for another chance as she had.

0o0o0

Reincarnation was a strange thing, and it's not as if Tsuru is afraid of dying this time around, it's more she wants to live. Really live.

And if the cost of her survival in this mad world is another's life, she will take it.

She will make it quick.

Maybe they will wake up in a better place, where they can be happier.

Tsuru sighs, watching Kurosuki Raiga stare off in to the distance, and wants to say something. Ease the guilt that's slowly building in him, and leaving him listless. Leaving dark spots beneath his eyes.

She cannot tell him the truth though, not this man.

The betrayal would destroy him, just as it would Biwa.

"Do you ever wonder what happens to a person after they die?" she finally asks, pulling his hand into her lap. Tracing the lines that cut through it.

The man's striking eyes meet hers. "Why do you ask?"

It is the what do you see, that goes unsaid.

Tsuru lets her head tilt, as if considering the question. "Umeyu-sensai said this is our life line. But what about the others, do they really mean what people say they do?"

"Does that point in the line really mean there is an ending, or are all the lines that mark our bodies really pathways? Possibilities. Maybe I was someone else before, and in some other place and fell here," she says pointing out one of the other lines. "Instead of there."

"Maybe they are just reminders, because we forget and they grow more important the closer we get to death."

Raiga hmms, and does what she loves most about him. He considers it.

She sits in silence beside the large man.

"You could be right," he eventually acknowledges. "There are time I forget you are a child. It could be that like muscle memory, sometimes your previous intelligence remains and that is how we gain prodigies."

They continue to watch the ninja below, dropping bird seed on the unexpecting. The bag nearing empty.

"Do you think you are happier here?" the man finally asks, as Tsuru had hoped.

Her fingers twine with his. "I think so."

Her eyes stare out over the village.

"Or maybe this is where I am supposed to find happiness."


	18. DFS Chapter 17

DFS Chapter 17.  
Tsuru's second year starts off much as the first did, with one exception. They are forced to share their text books with another person.

Yagura had said it promoted better relationships between the other students.

She thinks it might be more with the way Yuki Marise is glaring at her, as if it was Tsuru's fault he was seated next to Mizutani Ken. A boy from both a disgraced family, and the orphanage.

Maybe it was really a way to bridge the gap between the castes.

Tsuru isn't quite sure.

Her own partner is the Kaguya boy she helped last year, Subarou.

Did their clan even have a hierarchy?

Most seemed too, and it had been true for clans, even in her previous life. The other Kaguya seemed to defer to him as well.

0o0o0

Momochi-San stares at the two neatly wrapped packages in his hand.

"For you, and your shadow," she says, trying to keep the amusement from her voice.

Voice gruff, and muffled by the bandages he utters a quick, "thank you." His body language stiff, and awkward as always.

Tsuru smiles. The approaching child giving her a curious glance as she walks away, and takes Eito's waiting hand.

0o0o0

Biwa Juzo slows his gait, knowing the child will soon join him.

She is a devious creature, using kindness as a weapon. Thoughtfulness. Still, he cannot find it in himself to dislike her. Not as Jinpatchi does.

The girl appears a few seconds later, and embraces his leg.

"Welcome home, Biwa-San!" she greets, with that strange, almost inhuman intelligence flickering in her golden eyes. Something cold and calculating, and far to aware.  
Something he has rarely seen in children.

The last time he had seen it, was in their lord.

Biwa hadn't been the only one to notice either.

In some of the shadier places, as people drank and gambled they spread rumors about her heritage. Debated over why their leader doted on the child so.

Still his hand falls to her head.

Her eyes crinkle, and his heart quickens, as her smile broadens.

The girl's eyes nearly close and her voice trembles as she begins her chatter. Walking with him as he heads towards the administration wing. Hand never leaving his pant leg.

0o0o0

When the mass of water is dropped into her lap, she expects it to soak through. Instead a half formed limb strikes her in the chin, and Tsuru scowls, trying to catch hold.

The smaller form makes a warbled sound she imagines might be a laugh.

It makes her crack a smile.

It's such a strange sound.

And then the being shifts, trying to solidify like ill-set aspic, or pork jelly.

"He needs a little help yet," Mangetsu says, crouching down. His hand glowing softly.

Yagura grins behind him. "Suigetsu-kun has been wanting to meet you. The person who keeps giving his brother all those yummy, stretchy candies and the ones that melt, and pop in his mouth like bubbles."

"And who are you to refuse, such an innocent request?" Eito asks, leaning against the door frame. A set of new brushes in hands for Tsuru.


	19. DFS Chapter 18

Suigetsu takes to the forms like a duck to water, or perhaps a fledgling owl, with all it's awkward limbs.

The eldest Hozuki tries to hide his smile, but Tsuru knows that it is there. It is the same one she saw present on her own siblings faces, her fathers.

They call Mangetsu the second coming of the demon for all his ferocity in the field, but like Momochi he is still human, and-

Her arms flail when she is hoisted up.

Another barrage of laughter escaping her captor's mouth as Tsuru tries to maneuver, and aim an elbow for their throat.

"Password," she growls.

'So vicious," they muse, ignoring her demand. "I approve. Why did you not immediately go for my eyes?"

The lines around her mouth take an even shaper down turn. "The chance of you wearing your mask was to high, Kuriarare-san."

"Not senpei?" He asks, still holding her out. Her legs dangling above the ground.

"No."

Never, goes left unsaid.

0o0o0

The estate was large enough to house all of their future families, and Eito wonders if this is why Yagura chose it.

He moves through the empty passages like a ghost, trailing a hand along the volcanic rock that features in so much of the villages architecture.

A wife has never been one of Eito's priorities though, and he wonders how the man will fill it. Isano unable to have any more children, and their brothers even less interested in significant others then him. Tsuru, far to young to care.

He catches his elder sister peering into library.

"Tsuru-chan's asleep in there again?" he queries, coming to rest beside her.

"At the table she had father carry in," Isano reveals. Her painted lips purse. "I do not understand her, Eito."

"I don't think she understands you all that well either."

"Do not make light of this," Isano snaps, eyes growing hard. "Has she told you why she's pushing herself so hard?"

"I don't know. Have you asked your husband?"

"He says she wants to survive."

"Survive the exams?"

"No. What's coming."

0o0o0

Tsuru pauses, watching her sister strap on the weights. Her brows furrowed.

She looks over towards her brothers sitting at the low table, but they are pointedly avoiding her gaze.

Isano has never shown much interest in anything but politics, and prefers to exercise indoors, so this is both strange, and oddly terrifying.

Tsuru tries to damp down the unease that settles in her gut, but even as they set out for their run it only grows.

Why, she wonders. Why?


	20. DFS Chapter 19

Yagura watches a young Zabuza frown at the note, having been demoted from friend and mentor to messenger.

"Another one?" he asks, barely keeping a straight face.

"Yes. Haku is not one to be out done."

"Is it any good?"

Zabuza thrusts the paper at him.

The writing this time is neater, as if the boy had copied Tsuru's words over, and over again trying to perfect his form.

"He certainly has an eye for detail," Yagura murmers, reading through it. "And his vocabulary is improving. Did his mother aid him?"

"No, she was busy at the time."

He laughs. "Have you ever heard the line, if you like it, you should put a ring on it?"

Zabuza's eyebrows rise up, and after a moment he shakes his head. A wry grin on his face. "I hadn't."

0o0o0

Subaru enters the room with another Kaguya in tow.

A cute child, an inch shorter than her and only reaching up to the elder Kaguya's shoulder. His pale hair tied in a low lying ponytail. His green eyes vibrant, but wary.  
Behind them Zabuza's shadow prances in, his shoulder length hair bouncing with him. Dark brown eyes, wide and excited. He waits with the younger Kaguya beside their teacher. The other children passing them as they trickle in.

Subarou joins her, still scowling.

"Little brother?" Tsuru asks.

"My cousin," he declares. "My brother is a year older."

She knods, noticing how uncomfortable the other two Kaguya look and decides to end the conversation there.

As Tsuru waits for the teacher to speak, she pulls out her notebook.

"Ah, Tsuru-chan don't unpack just yet," Masako-sensei says. A messenger beside her. "You'll be switching desk partners. Kimimaro-kun here will be joining you, and Haku-kun will be joining Subarou-kun."

She meets the teachers gaze, and then looks the two boys over again. "Very well."

A few grumbles erupt from the students present, though Ooi Fukizō is loudest. Crying out, "i want to trade too!"

His partner smacks him, hissing, "you wanna get us stuck with the babies?"

"That baby won your last spar," Fukizō points out. "Broke your wrist, and made you drop your sword."

"She cheated."

The teacher sighs. "Of course she did."

"Tsuru-chan has proven herself adept, and will make an excellent example for the newest additions to our class. Subaru-kun as well."

Yes, and her brothers machinations have nothing to do with it.

0o0o0

Yuki Haku settles in between her, and Kimimaro.

"What were you writing today?" he asks, motioning for the notebook Tsuru had closed. Her eyes at half mast.

"Go ahead and read it," she mumbles, putting her head down. "Try to be quiet though, I plan to nap for awhile."

"You sleep here?" he asks, horrified. He looks around at the other students, pushing to get out the doors. The approaching Kaguya.

"Fifteen minutes of sleep," she says, muffled by her sleeve. "Can give you a short energy boost...Stave off tiredness...Improve motor skills. Those kind...things."

0o0o0

He's back.

With a broad smile Tsuru pushes past the adults legs, clustered around the gray robed man. A few children already there.

Butterflies made of paper soar over two fans the man holds. His callused hands, propelling them.

She meets his river-stone eyes, and winks.

Kushimaru was a brilliant swordsman. One of the seven, but also a gifted actor. His face, only uncovered when he was playing a role. Most would never suspect this particular man of being one of their most well known. His golden hair hidden beneath a wig. Chakra suppressed.

He had refused to tell her, where he had learned this particular skill.

She suspected one of the brothels, hidden behind a more respectable veneer or maybe from his father, that could of been a possibility too.

He would never admit it, she thinks. So focused on promoting, an almost unapproachable aura in uniform. Something meaner, more mischievous and far closer to his true personality. Something untouchable.

For all he hid, and protested though, he seemed to enjoy her continued efforts. Hiding, a twitch of the lips as she plopped down beside him as only a child would. Fans, sliding from her sleeves.

Clicking.

Her brother above them, his mouth in a tight line.


	21. DFS Chapter 20

Subarou grabs her wrist, before she can leave the classroom. Nearby a few of the others try to linger, forming small groups

Tsuru motions with her other hand for her companions to go ahead.

"My cousin is dangerous," the boy warns, watching them move with furrowed brows.

"And I am not?"

"Not in the same way. Father-"

"Father," he states more firmly. "Said I need to watch him. And the elders... The elders say he was born on an inauspicious day. He shouldn't of lived."

"Why?" Tsuru asks, reminding herself not to rip her limb from his. She knows the boy means well.

And prejudice against, or towards kekkei genkai isn't uncommon, even among clans.

Subarou looks away, his grip only tightening. "I am not allowed to tell you that."

"Clan things?"

"Clan secrets."

She pats his hand, trying to force a smile. "I appreciate your warning, but I'm not afraid."

"You should be."

A laugh escapes her. "I know."

"I do not understand you," he scowls. "You are usually so reasonable."

"Just because he's more dangerous than me, doesn't mean I'm any less of a monster than him Subaru-kun. In fact, that only means I need to work harder to befriend him. It means I will need him as an ally."

He stares at her, stunned.

She says quietly, watching the others, "there are things coming Subaru-kun, dangerous things we won't be able to defeat on our own."

"And I do not want you to die."

0o0o0

This is evil, that is evil.

People here throw the word around until it encompasses everything outside of them, just as they did there.

Tsuru isn't sure if she believes in evil anymore.

But she does believe in monsters that wear human like skins. In people who do terrible things.

In heroes like Akebino Jinin who believed in facing everything head on. An admirable trait in most situations, but also bound to leave carnage in his wake.

In idealists like Biwo Jūzō and Hoshigaki Kisame, who were loyal to their beliefs, and those they cared for.

In loyalists like Kuriarare Kushimaru, who would follow any order given by their Mizukage. Proud to be of service, and to be known for their skills.

In people like her and her brothers, who just wanted to carve out a place in this world for themselves.


	22. DFS Chapter 23

The tea in Tsuru's hands is hot and sweet, but it it is not enough to distract her. She watches her companions eyes keep flickering to the long haired woman, with pupiless eyes.

"She's the one from the cypher division, right? Tsuru whispers. "You should ask her to join us, Kisame-san."

The man stiffens. His cheeks lightly dusted with purple. "I... Uh, no."

"Would you rather I do it? Because I will."

0o0o0

Tsuru watches Isano from the doorway, torn between entering and being bombarded with requests for the poetry she has memorized from his sisters companions, or leaving, and losing the chance to pester Sachihiro for some of his old notebooks.

After a few more seconds, she enters the room.

Sharp brown eye's regard her. "You've decided to finally join us then?"

"I didn't want to interrupt your conversation," Tsuru lies, picking up a piece of scrap fabric from the pile nearby. The silk soft, and cool against her skin. "Is Sachihiro-nii awake yet?

"You missed him, another urgent mission came up."

Tsuru sighs, and drops the cloth. "Then I will leave you be."

"You needn't study so much, Tsuru-chan." Oniyuzu Mirai chides, stopping mid stitch. "Come join us."

"You already have enough hands making toys," Tsuru remarks, examining the growing pile of handmade playthings. One of her elder siblings brilliants plans to influence future generations in their villages favor.

Tsuru admits she would love to see some of the crankier, hardened ninja handing them out, as her brothers did when they traveled.

"I should make a batch of hard candy to go with them," she murmurs, looking towards the kitchen. It would certainly give her an excuse to leave.

"Such an industrious child," Yuki Hideyo praises. "Those are what you call those sugar candies you make?'

Or perhaps not. Tsuru focuses on the elegant looking man, his perfect posture.

"Yes," she admits, trying not to shift under the man's gaze. "They last the longest."

"Those are also the layered ones you call jaw breakers?" he probes.

Tsuru's eyes fall to her sister, who seems amused. "No, those are harder to make. The sugar candies are the ones I our into the molds father bought."

"Would you mind us watching? I would like to see the process."

Decades ago, Tsuru had felt the same way. Leaning over the counter, as her mother tried to perfect another recipe from work with simpler equipment. It is difficult to say no.

"It will be to crowded for all of us in the kitchen," Isano reveals, saving Tsuru from answering. "But I doubt my sister would mind some company Hideyo-kun. Our siblings often help her."

"You mean, they eat more candy than they wrap," she mutters, knowing they will laugh. "And call it a compliment."

0o0o0

Tsuru's form grows heavier in his arms with each passing year. He brushes a stray hair back, as he carries to her bedroom.

Stops to wash her face, with a cloth he runs under the bathroom's faucet.

She fusses, and murmurs, but does not put up any real effort as he moves onto her hands. Far to used to the treatment.

Taiga knows his daughter is more intelligent then she pretends. Her honey-hued eyes a shade too calculating. Her responses a little too slow. His brother had been like that too, in his youth.

He cannot say he doesn't appreciate her attempting to be normal though, to give him another child to dote on.

He worries though.

It's hard not to with a child like that.

0o0o0

Tsuru's walking down the street when street when she first notices it, the dim, black mist forming above the village's inhabitants.

And at first she dismisses it as a figment of her imagination, but that soon changes.

A part of Tsuru wonders if one of the older children have cast a genjutsu on her as some kind of sick joke. She wouldn't put it above them to target her. A few of the them still held grudges that have bleed to their younger siblings.

Her fingers quickly form the hand seals necessary to dispell the illusion as she reaches the edge of the training ground. Kisame, and Mangetsu throwing themselves at each other a few feet away. Swords clashing, before they push off and the dance begins again.

Days pass, and it does not dissipate no matter how many times she attempts those seals.

People's injuries have also begun to stain the dark figures red, and she tries not to stare. She does.

Her family aren't the first to notice, but they do comment and one morning Eito plops a box shaped hat onto her head. Three white balls dangling from the headgear, and bouncing off of her torso. Tsuru knows he expects her to laugh but she can't, only force a weak smile.

They grow quiet.

Watchful.

A few hours later Tsuru finds herself digging through one of the chests, locked away in one of the storage buildings off the main house. Seeking the festival masks her siblings have collected over the years, thins her father couldn't bear to part with. The growing bags under her eyes, fueling that need.

The academy teachers tell Tsuru she is doing the seals correctly, and the unsettled feeling in her stomach grows.

Yuichi isn't due home for another week, and Tsuru is supposed to be angry with Yagura for teasing her about her new acessories, so she cannot be caught asking him.

Instead she finds herself hesitating outside her nephews nursery.

Isano peers out at her. "Did you need something Tsuru-chan?"

Nails dig into her palms.

"No," she lies, looking down.

"Are you sure?"

Tsuru knods, and forces herself to move, to ignore the now solid figures above her sister's head. The wavering gray over Satoru's.

She heads towards her bedroom and it's attached bathroom. Her hand trembling as the door opens.

Tsuru's gaze falls to the square mirror, hanging above the counter. Solid, and sure.

Two names float over her head, like errant clouds of matter. One a ghostly faded red,crossed out and half stitched into the other.

She stares at them with dawning realisation.

Her eyes following the hanging string, that disappears suddenly.

0o0o0

The head priest watches her with a calmness Tsuru cannot return.

The rhythmic chanting behind them sends cool fingers racing down her skin, already burning from the cold, harsh air of the snow covered mountain peaks.

Tsuru knows the sound, recognizes the notes but she cannot place it anymore than she can her grandfathers voice. Her grandmothers. She resists the urge to cry out, scream at the dead to shut up. The noise growing in volume the longer Tsuru remains. Even the cones of her eyes seem to vibrate as the drums join in, beating frantically.

Her fingers knot in the dark fabric of her jacket. "I cannot stay."

The man simply smiles at her, even as strange ribbons twist about him and then slide towards her. Ethereal, and pale with fish like heads, and rippling fins. Beady, hungry eyes. "I know child. Death calls you, as surely as the cold wind calls the leaves from the trees. Even now you can hear them, can't you?"

"Yes."

Tsuru thinks I can't see the shades anymore, but leaves those words unvoiced. It is more than enough to see the fragmented names, written above invisible heads. These odd creatures.

The man nods to himself. "I am going to die today then, probably within hours."

"Yes," Tsuru admits, focusing on the characters above his head. Stained so red, they practically drip.

Meat she remembers. That's all their bodies were.

The other priest kneeling beside her, the man's student flinches as if hearing her thoughts. Face fallen slack in the wavering light, as wind slips in through the window cracks and kisses the candle's flames.

"You should try daughter of rivers, and sails. To remain, I mean. Death has called you here for a reason."

"She's the lady that leads me to the life I dream of. She's the mistress that keeps me from the ones that I love," utters a man Tsuru had once loved, cutting through the incessant noise. 

His voice of no comfort today.

And it is only in her mind, but still she shivers. Wraps her arms tighter round herself. It is worse than the feel of the eel like creatures brushing against her, like overly affectionate cats. Tsuru hopes they will not follow her.

"It is better that I leave. I only seem to distract them from their purpose."

"Them?"

"The shinigami."

"Ah," he says. His smile finally straining. "Not our kami, or any of the rulers of any of hell?"

The rulers of hell? Tsuru had only ever thought there was one.

"No, not yet," she admits, checking the room to be sure. There had been something to quick, to catch a true glimpse of earlier as they entered the temple grounds and looked upon the frozen waterfall but that was it.

"Do not look so worried child," the man chuckles, then falls into another coughing fit. Saicho lifting his teacher up, as she hurriedly pours a glass of strong, medicinal smelling tea that makes her nose twitch.

Blood spatters against the man's hand. Slips between his fingers.

"I doubt they mean you ill." the man finishes after awhile. His eyes watering.

His blood coated teeth flash. "And we both know how this goes. This is nothing, but a passing thought."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The man she loves, is Johnny Cash.


	23. DFS Chapter 22

Intent is important, and so is imagination.

She watches the other children struggle to form a lotus, and scowls when the image in her hand begins to grow faint. Flicker.

Concentration is as well.

Tsuru tries again, attempting to construct the white poppies she had seen as she traveled with her brother.

She lets the desk act as as a ledge, pushing a steady stream of constantly moving chakra into her palms. Attempts to weave the image into being.

Magic, she thinks shouldn't need hand signs.

Much of it seems to here, though.

She forces her hands to form the familiar hand seals. Ones Yuichi has drilled her on, again and again.

Tentatively, a single stem erupts from a small tuft of oblong leaves and reaches towards the light. It's urn shaped bud opening, and four petals spreading out.

Tsuru tilts her head as that image to is disturbed. Kimimaro's fingers caressing the bloom, instead of passing through.

"It's smooth," he critiques, frowning.

She grimaces. "It shouldn't be."

It should of been hairier, like the crocuses that sprouted in spring among the foothills. The ones she picked with her cousins for their mothers.

Softer.

0o0o0

Her mother never stopped, not even after things fell apart and her father took his life.

Tsuru watches one of Isano's friends struggle, as so many have before. One of the woman's sister's holding her shaking form.

The only difference is that their wife is about to being executed in the square, for plotting against Yagura, and the village.

Tsuru observes from her fathers side as her brother steps onto the podium. His face colder than she's ever seen before.  
Isano follows him, in her uniform.

Twelve masked ninja stand before them, weapons drawn as stand guard over the traitors. The ninja bound to wooden stands, with their limbs splayed between the posts. Bruised skin, and torn skin marked with their crimes. Paralyzing agents course through their veins, courtesy of Sachihiro's mentor.

"We have been betrayed," he brother starts, and then continues with the speech he has been preparing for a week.

Tsuru has heard it to many times to be awed, as many of the others are. Instead she examines the crowd discreetly, and catches sight of a few familiar faces. Most nearby, or preparing a bonfire for the bodies. Piles of garbage ready to be burned along with them.

She sees Haku near the edges, and moves, before she realizes she has. Her fathers hand still in hers.

By the time Tsuru's almost reached him, she finds herself stopping.

When did she begin to care weither it would bother him, or not?

0o0o0

Within a few weeks, Tsuru's desk has become more crowded. Children watching Haku as he reads softly from her notebook.

Subarou's arm resting beside hers, as he sits between her, and Kimimaro. Kotatsu and Montaro to their right. All entranced as Tsuru had been, when she had first listened to cassette sent by her colleague. Her love of radio plays, and dramas well known.

Tsuru had never actually read any of the earthsea cycle books, despite the acclaim they had received, to focused on other matters and a part of her regrets it. Never bought it on tape.

So much literature lost, because she had not bothered to read them.

Still, she has other tales to tell.

Not everything was lost.

0o0o0

A month has passed since the other children have started surrounding her desk, drawn by Haku and his attempts to read the rest of her notebooks.

And it was almost comforting for awhile, but children from other classes have begun to wander in. Teachers too.

And their eyes are far to shrewd.

"You planned this!" Tsuru finally accuses, storming into Yagura's office as the door opens.

Momochi's eyebrows raise when she continues past him.

"Of course I did," her brother replies, still focused on a delicate looking scroll. A few seconds later he raises his head. "Wait- What are we speaking of?"

She drops onto the vacant seat, and covers her face with her hands, elbows digging into her thighs.

"I'm tired big brother and they keep bothering me during the breaks. Making me read words they don't recognise, and pestering me until I explain. I told them to bug me only during the last, but some of them just don't listen."

"And they're multiplying! Why can't they just go back to pretending i don't exist?"

"It's good to make friends your age, Tsuru-kun," Yagura reassures. "And Isano will be pleased, you know how important she thinks they are."

Tsuru freezes.

They are important.

Fuck.

"I hate you, sometimes," she grumbles, standing up. "You know you're supposed to be on my side right?"

He laughs, and waves his hand towards the coinpurse on his desk. "Go grab us something to snack on, hangry and we'll talk. Perhaps Zabuza-kun will even escort you if you ask him nicely."


	24. DFS Chapter 23

Tsuru walks beside her brother. The man carrying a large, round pot of chamomile in his well muscled, almost bulging arms. The plant similar to the ones that grew in clumps throughout their library, among hundreds of other treasures her siblings have brought home to her. The only difference is she has wrapped this one in white cloth, and tied it with a large, fabric bow. It's shade, a bright red.

Something that won't be considered overly feminine or unlucky, but still attractive enough to be presentable as a gift.

Hundreds of curious, and suspicious eyes trail after them from inside the tall, cylinderical buildings made of mortared volcanic rock. A few of the more traditional, hand sewn tents still linger even after almost two years here. Cutting strange figures with their long, vertical stripes. Their shape close to rectangular, with entrances that remind Tsuru of curtains. Brightly colored banners hang on either side. The roofs above triangular, with an overlapping section that's runs down its length, and the edges of the structure below.

Fifty feet away, near the center of the compound a larger tent sits, though lower as if to encourage sitting. Gray, low hanging smoke escapes from many places in it's ceiling, and is 

blown by the wind creeping down from the mountains.

A few of the idling Kaguya men approach them as they near, more sentries no doubt warned by people slipping in, and out of the apartment buildings.

Yuichi tries to smile as their father does but he is to stiff and way to formal by nature. Sachihiro may of been a better choice, Tsuru realizes.

And then a boy pushes past the pale, dove gray garbed men, forcing them to break from the wall they had been forming. "Grandmother is expecting the girl, and you are holding her up," he grouses, looking cross.

"I will take your sibling from here," the boy, Getsumei says suddenly, sizing her brother up as the other men had.

Tsuru almost laughs. Of her brothers Yuichi is most physically impressive yes, but he is also the most calculating, and the least likely to start a fight outright, or just for the fun of it.

"Very well," her brother replies. His tone clipped "Hold out your arms, boy. And you, otouto are to be on your best behavior."

"Of course Yuichi-nii," she says throwing her arms around him, startling the other men. "Make sure to pack the container I left on the counter for you."

His face softens.

A callused hand falls to Tsuru's head, and ruffles her loosely woven hair. "I will, thank you. "

"Yagura will collect you at the agreed upon time. Remember."

Tsuru knods, and steps forward. Offering the Kaguya what she hopes is a disarming smile. "You are Subarou's elder brother, Getsumei. Correct?"

0o0o0

The Kaguya are louder than she expected, and jostle each other as they walk by.

"My brother informs us you have many wonderous stories to tell," Getsumei informs her, still watching her with a strange intensity. His cheeks no longer dusted pink.

Tsuru pats her bag. "I brought something I thought your brother might enjoy."

"Is it something to do with these pirates of yours?"

Tsuru laughs, and it is a pleasant sound. "No, not today. I have something different."

0o0o0

The woman, Kaguya Kureha cuts an intimidating figure.

Tsuru bows immediately. Her eyes watering slightly with the onslaught of fragrant incense that wafts out the door frame. Heat rushing past her frame. "Sorry for intruding upon you."

"You are letting the warm air out. Come in."

"Thank you," she says, following. Admiring the rug strewn floor, beyond the tamami laden entrance. "I have brought a few things, gifts, as I wasn't sure what was considered appropriate."

"They are nothing special."

"You needn't play coy girl. The tea you gave my nephew, eased my brothers cough."

Tsuru stiffens.

That had been a secret. A small kindness meant for the weary Kimimaro, who had been attending the man. She should of known the Kaguya would of noticed her slipping the gentle boy a small bag, with a note enclosed.

He had been so hesisitant.

"I have brought something similar," Tsuru admits, still being herded along the bottom floor, towards the back rooms that often held the entertaining area. Grateful only Getsumei was facing her.

"Tsuru-chan?" Subarou asks, wheesing. A cough racking his body as he shifts. The sound coming from deep in his chest. Bronchitis she thinks, recognizing the sound. That look of pain.  
The boy tries again to rise to greet her. Heavy blankets, and furs sliding down his form. Bunching at his waist. His aunt or mother, Tsuru isn't sure scowls, and pushes him down. Adjusts the bedding.

And again, his chest heaves.

"You need to put more pillows beneath him, raise his torso and head," she murmers, stepping closer as if to help. The sound coming from the child awful. "He will breath easier in an reclined, almost sitting position."

"Have you tried throwing a towel over Subarou's head as he leans over boiling water?"

Kureha sends her a reproachful look.

"Sorry," she apologizes. "I usually help care for my siblings when they are ill."

A partial lie. Her siblings rarely fell sick, as often as the Kaguya or many of the more powerful clan members seemed too. Though to be honest, the civilians had it worse, with little to no chakra reserves to augment their healing.

An older woman with white hair to rival Kimimaro's watches her with cloudy eyes from his other side. A rattle in her hands. "And what have you brought us, young priestess?"

Tsuru moves towards them, and kneels at the edge of the boys palette beside Getsumei. Smiles at the flushed child, his skin covered in a thin layer of visible sweat. Squeezes his hand instead of a proper greeting, knowing she has to answer Irei, who had addressed her first.

They had been trying to sweat out a cold Tsuru realizes, as she tries not to sneeze. Uncomfortable in the haze of rising smoke. It burns her nose, as well as eyes.  
She wonders if it's any good for Subarou's lungs.

Opening her dark, beaded sachal Tsuru removes two jars and offers them the her elder. The paper taped to glass marked with simple to use instructions now useless, with the womans eyes compromised.

"The larger one is yuzu syrup, and the smaller one is peppermint oil. I prepared them myself."

Her fingers still green, because she had forgotten to wear gloves.

The old woman opens the jars one at a time, and sniffs delicately. Eyes widening when she draws open the second.

"This is good for aches."

"Yes, and you needn't much. A few drops each time. My siblings often use it, when they are congested. No... When their noses are clogged as well. You just rub a small amount on the chest every few hours with a warm compress."

"I have also brought a planter full of chamomile," Tsuru gestures, to where blank has put the container down. The boy having rushed upstairs to grab more bedding when she first spoke. "The heads if shaved can be used to make a tea, that is both calming and a sleep aid."

The woman's response is warm. "Who taught you medicine child?"

"I've learned alot from reading old scrolls, and texts. Sometimes the medics at the hospital will let me watch them prepare salves and tinctures if I sit quietly, among their students. Yagura-nii forces them too accept anyone who shows an interest. Civilian or not."

Her previous knowledge, only expanding on it.

0o0o0

It's brighter in the home, now that the ritual incense has been removed.

The woman indulge her, helping Tsuru change the bedding while Saburou is forced into the hot, steaming shower by his brother.

She can hear him coughing, but it seems to be easing the longer he's in the bathroom.

"He will be more tired, but the illness will cling less," she says with authority. Her elders responding well to the tone, if only with amusement. "We just have to make sure he is dried properly after, and kept warm."

Irei cackles and her daughter's expression shifts. "I should take you as my apprentice. You would keep our people on their toes."

"I doubt your clan members are any more difficult than my sibli-"

A hand lands on Tsuru's shoulders. "You are going to catch ill."

Tsuru looks back, taking in the freshly dressed child. Subarou's ink black hair long and loose, nearly luminous in the light. Wet strands dripping, and landing on her top familiar curve of the boy's mouth pulled into a pout. His brows knotted together.

"Give me that towel and sit," she orders. A droplet sliding down her neck, and making her shiver

Subarou obeys, with widening eyes.

"I will need a brush too, Getsumei-kun," she calls.

"You needn't," Subarou protests, trying to take the towel from her.

"Hush, boy. Your friend has made up her mind to care for you. Accept it."

Tsuru grins, pleased.

She begins the process of drying the boys hair. Longer than hers, when he wears its undone.

"I am already exposed to the illness, so it hardly matters," Tsuru offers quietly, taking the brush that has been deposited near her.

She starts at the bottom, and then moves up. The boy beneath her close to melting, his body slack.

If her was a cat Tsuru thinks, he would be purring.

"And you don't need to talk so much. I know it hurts to breath, let alone talk."

"You've expierenced this before?"

"Twice. My father panicked both times," Tsuru says with a laugh. "Eito-nii had to ban him from the doctor's office."

0o0o0

Yagura enters behind the Kaguya clan head.

A tall, evenly built man with tanned, and weathered skin. His face square, and bearing angular, almost aristocratic features. The exceptions his bent, and crooked nose and the gash bisecting thin, wide lips. His muscles flexing under his robes as he walks. No, stalks Yagura mentally corrects, like a big cat cutting through the tall grasses.

The man suddenly slows, cocking an ear. Listening to his little sister's lilt, and how her voice carries. The Mark of the Horse Lord spilling from her lips, a book published by an author she had loved as a child.

It is nearly a third done when they arrive.

A cool, camphoraceous odor greets them, with hints of citrus accompanying it.

The mans nose wrinkles, and he frowns trying to place the smell.

Yagura knows immediately.

The youngest son of the clan's head resting peacefully beside his sister, and the other woman at a low, heated table. A compress on both the boy's forehead, and chest. Soft snores, escaping from his half-prone form.

Hyoe's other son, listening to Tsuru with rapt attention.


	25. DFS Chapter 24

DFS Chapter 24  
It had been a surprise to find out many of the more traditional families did not celebrate birthdays as she remembered them.

So Suigetsu's eyes are huge when Tsuru carries out the heavy trifle glass filled with layers of honey infused yogurt, chunks of soft, sponge cake and fruit jelly. Six, thin white candles mingling among sugar covered jube jubes. Their wicks lit.

"It's beautiful," Isano marvels, as Tsuru comes closer. Eito trailing behind her with bowls, and an ornate spoon. Taken from her uncles collection, the last time she had visited his home.

Kisame grins, leaning over to the boy. "She'll expect you to make a wish, when you blow out those candles."

Suigetsu knods. "Okay." His lavender hued eyes still tracking the dessert.

"And if you tell anyone, it won't come true," adds Yagura.

Mangetsu looks at the men strangly. "She didn't sing to you?"

"They made fun of me," Tsuru complains, setting it in front of the birthday boy.

0o0o0

The buildings from a distance could almost be mistaken for natural formations, swaddled in the dense, ghost grey fog that sweeps across the gorge. Growing thicker, and heavier as the sun creeps, no crawls over the horizon.

A few of the other students studying under the medic-nin stop to track it's progress.

Tsuru's holds the basket close to her chest, her fingers stinging. The astringent sap seeping into wounds because she had forgotten her gloves, in her rush. Sleep still resting in the corners of her heavy eyes.

She is to aware of time, of lost moments to spend it as she did in her first childhood.

0o0o0

Raiga walks with her through the melting snow. The mist around them thicker, as it evaporates into the air.  
She tears into the steamed bun, that has been warming her hands and almost stops.

Rei had remembered.

Pleasure courses through her, and Tsuru takes another bite.

"Good?" the green haired man asks, holding his own. His smile wide, and as always, so damnable.

She knods, and lifts it up for him to try. "The dates are delicious."

He frowns. "Those are costly to import."

"I know," she replies. Waving the bun towards him again.

Raiga leans down.

"Hmm... That is good," he murmurs, looking towards the extra two buns in the bag. "Perhaps Nagisa would like one."

"She would."

"You still think I'm making a mistake?" he queries. His body suddenly far to still.

"Yes," Tsuru murmurs, before taking another bite.

Her forehead wrinkles. "I think whatever you do, you should talk to big brother first. He knows more about marriage than i do."

0o0o0

In the early hours of the day, before the sun has made the decision to peek through the haze like a curious child, Yagura heaves himself on on the kitchen counter beside Isano's youngest sibling.

Tsuru-chan scowls, and swats his pilfering hand from her colourful, half-filled bento.

"Your ass doesn't belong on the counter," the child grumbles, trying to save the remains of her lunch.

A futile effort.

Isano focuses more intently on her sister.

Tsuru had always been a moody child, even hiding herself away when upset, but rarely crass. She was like Yuichi, and their father in that manner.

"My pants are clean," her husbands reassures, reaching for a cloth from the sink to wipe his sticky fingers."

"I don't care. It's disgusting," she grouses. Her face scrunched up. "And make something."

"But you have extra. How can I resist such a temptation?"

"Oh, and how did you shape it like that? Did you use a mold?"

"Go bug your wife."

Undertured, Isano's husband's grin only grows. He asks softly, in that teasing voice she loves. "Have you gotten a boyfriend, Tsuru-kun? A girlfriend? Are you trying to impress them?"

"Yes. She's seven feet tall and looks like death."

Yagura pretends to gasp. His warm, light hued eyes spread wide. "Oh her?"

"Really? Hmm. Well, I'm pretty sure I could take her."

Isano feels something rankle.

It isn't fair she thinks.

Her sister never cared for the stories Isano told. Never crawled onto her lap, as she had their mothers when she recounted the tales passed down, generation from generation.

How could such nonsense now entertain her sister so?

Eito trudges into the room, interrupting her thoughts. His skin ghastly under the harsh kitchen light. Eyes watering slightly, under it's glare.

"She's competing with Arata's mother, and attempting to create the prettier lunch box," Eito announces, kissing Satorou's forehead as he passes. Isano's son giggles in her lap. "Isn't that right, little sister?"

Embarrasement creeps onto the girl's cheeks.

"I know it's stupid," she admits. "But I only need to win once, to prove I can."

Their sibling mearly lumbers forward, reaching for the shiny, metal box. "Then you won't mind us, trying some of each? To ensure it's quality."

Tsuru smacks the pale, fleshy limb. "I would."

Their brother frowns.

"You let Yagura have some," Eito protests.

"And i'm hungry," he adds, stepping closer.

He leans against their sisters back, arms hanging out over her shoulders. The girl standing on the long, wooden bench that runs along half the counters length.

"Look," Eito says, as the limbs fall. "I'm so weak I cannot hold my arms up. It's possible I may even drop, if I do not gain sustainance soon."

"Won't you save me?"

Tsuru snorts, and eyes him from the side. "Just how hung over are you?"

"Enough to beg."

"Fine," she sighs. "But you owe me."

"For my little sister, the world. Now gimme."

"No."

Her brother blinks owlishly. Fingers caught by the closing lid.

"I've already chopped the burdock root. Go get the fish," she orders. "I have it marinating in the fridge. The blue container in the drawers. The ones beside it too."

"You were holding out on us," Yagura accuses, hopping down to investigate. "I should of known."

Their sister laughs, a sound that fills Isano's heart with joy.

Her sister would steal a lot of hearts one day, just as their mother had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Which POV's are your favourites, and who would you like to see more of?


	26. DFS Chapter 25

Suigetsu clings to his sister and at first Eito is amused, even relieved. The temperamental child acting like an anemone attached to a hermit crab. Stinging whatever it can, and moving with it's host as it covers ground. Sharing it's meals.

But those feelings pass as the Hozuki boy begins to steal into the estate, slipping into his sisters bedroom while his brother is gone. Ignoring his clans mounting frustration. Their fears.

Yagura changes making them uneasy, especially as his influence grows. A few of the traditional members convinced he was collecting their children, the ones with the most potential for a coup.

Sometimes watching the man maneuver people into his younger sister's sights, even Eito wonders.

0o0o0

Tsuru leans against the shaking man. The Tatami mats digging into her knees, as she presses herself tighter against his back. Warmth seeping through the sleeves of her furisode. Arms dangling over broad shoulders.

"One day, you will meet them- that person you were born for," she whispers, close to his ear. "I have seen it."

Like the river pulling vegetation through the raging currents, his hair sails through the air. The man regards her with wet, wild eyes.

Tsuru pulls back slightly.

It is easy to forget how intense these people are, when they do not really see her.

Or is the person she is becoming?

Tsuru frowns.

"I am not supposed to tell any one these things," she continues. Painted nails digging crescents into her forearms. "You cannot tell anyone either. Ever."

Better him to think her a seer, then the liar she is.

There is no guarantee if the man stays Yagura had said, but Tsuru cannot hold her tongue staring into those desperate, hungry eyes. Everyone deserved hope, even when the blade is against their throat. The metal cap sliding over their head.

And he dies. Her friend dies.

The child will need you to be his limbs, his freedom. He is very sweet," she offers, trying to smile softly. Offer him something to keep those feet moving.

Tsuru has always been a selfish creature after all.

"You were going to kill him at first, but then he spoke. Understood."

The mans grip on her just strengthens, and Tsuru resists the urge to struggle. Wonders how she'll explain the bruises to her siblings, if they wander in while she is dressing. Yuichi especially.

How the anbu watching from the roof top will react, if she shows fear. If she raises her voice.

"His name?" the man demands again, and Tsuru looks back up.

"Ranmaru, but it will be years before you meet yet."

"You know where he is?"

"No, but I asked big brother to give you time to search, if you decide to stay."

"If I decide to stay?"

"In one timeline you leave, a broken man," Tsuru tells him sadly. "Big brother was not the man he is now, there. Another man controlled him, the one with the orange mask and the whole village suffered."

"All it's people."

"And the other timeline?"

"You come home to us, never knowing."

0o0o0

She stares at the name her brother has written down. Admires the neat strokes he prides himself in, and pushes back the pin prick of envy.  
It is strange for Yagura to share this kind of information, especially without prompting. These are the things he shares with Ao, and to a lesser extent Kisame and her. Things she doesn't usually hear about until they have been dealt with.

Tsuru wonders if this is the reason her brother has such dark bags under his eyes. Why he looks so weary.

"If you see this name above a strangers head, you need to get in contact with me, or send word," Yagura orders. "Waylay them if you can, but stay cautious and whatever you do, don't let them know you recognize them."

"Are they that dangerous?"

"They are a threat to any kekkei genkai user in the village, including you."

"Seeing a persons name is hardly a kekkei genkai," she repeats, frustrated by his insistence. "Even using yin chakra, which we both as you said have in spades, a persons name shouldn't be visible."

"It might not of been before the divine tree poisoned this world with chakra, and caused the mutation that allowed us to harness it. The summons as well." Yagura reminds her. "Before that, many of our ancestors had different abilities."

Tsuru frowns.

That makes sense, but she can't help the feeling, it's supposed to mean something more.

"You still think it's a message from whoever rules over the shinigami, don't you?"

"Yes. It feels more like an omen to me. Both your names, and Isobu's names look less butchered than mine."

Tsuru admits, "I keep thinking I was meant to be one of the shinigami, but some higher power changed their mind at the last minute and scrambled to change things."

"That would explain your bearing," Yagura quips. He then adds more seriously. "But it could also be, because I have settled into my role after twenty-eight years. You haven't had that kind of time."

He reaches over and ruffles her unbound hair. "Be patient little sister."

0o0o0

It's a subtle change he almost dismisses.

A small ring captured by the light, as his daughter looks above a man's head. Her mouth pulled into a familiar frown.

"I need to excuse myself father," she says after a moment, ducking her head to a few of his friends. Her hand moving in a seemingly innocuous gesture he knows is a signal for the anbu guard.

He almost stands to follow her.


	27. DFS Chapter 26

The tea house is not far, and the capsule style restaurants loom over them. The man just a few feet away. A genius bound to destroy himself, and many others.

"Would you care to join me for lunch, Orochimaru-san?" Tsuru calls out in her sweetest lilt.

The man stops, with widing eyes as he turns to her.

What he must see, she almost giggles.

"Or would you like to play a game of tag?"

"If you win, I'll even tell you a secret," she promises, ready for the anbu to descend. Her big brother.

0o0o0

His sister is inquisitive, bordering on nosy. A trait which has kept many shinobi in business.

She was also a manipulative little shut.

Treating people like puzzles. Turning them over in her hands, this way and that, trying to figure out where they belong. How to make them fit, if all that maneuvering fails.

Pruning rounded edges as if their where flower heads, like a young Mortia Adams.

The people of course, do not appreciate this expierence.

Munashi Junpei especially.

The man unnerved by her advances in a way none of the other swordsman are.

The other men dismissing her as a child, aside from Kushimaru who seems to think his sister is his spirit animal, a strange bond forming between two sadists, and the teens bickering partner. His sister likes to deny it of course, but she never pulls her punches.

Yagura wonders if it's because Jinpachi's offended by his sister wanting to play with him, or if when the man feels her eyes on him, that primitive side of his brain lights up, and he recognizes a fellow predator. And one, with sharper teeth and a gaping jaw. Held back, by no loyalty to ideals or interest in bloodshed. The fight.

Someone who's only interest, is peeling someone's skin back to look around, and juggle their brains in her hands.

0o0o

Jinpatchi's movements are smooth, despite the destruction that will soon follow.

She tugs on Suigetsu, who's nearly bouncing as he watches the man, and his sibling fight. "We need to move."

The boy laughs. "We're out of the blast zone, Tsuru."

"For now," Tsuru acknowledges, forcing the child to the left. "You're not thinking far enough ahead though. Where will they move after that area is destroyed?"

His eyes widen. "Oh."

"You really want to get singed again?"

"Your never going to let that go, are you?" he grumbles, as she drags him along in a head lock. His struggles weak, as he relishes the close contact.

"Of course not."

Heat blooms against their backs, and Tsuru's hair is swept up, by the force of the detonations.

"Your horrible person," he says, still squirming. "I hate you."

Tsuru almost snorts.

"That's okay," she says petting his soft, snowball shaped head. Muscles pulling beneath her sleeve, Tsuru knows a scowl is threatening to envelop the boys face. He starts to slide from her grip. "I hate you too, my jiggily friend."

"I do not jiggle."

"Wobble?"


	28. DFS Chapter 27

DFS Chapter 27

It had always been a mark of contention among the Iwakagure, and Kirigakure councils that they had similar structures. The founding families elders sharing power with prominent citizens of the village, while still habouring more influence.

And each, and everyone of those eight members were currently focused on him. 

All trying to push their own agendas.

"The deal we brokered with the Kaguya is still valid, regardless of the scuffles we have experienced," Yagura answers. Meeting each of the council members eyes.

Adawatchi scoffs. "Those scuffles, as you call them have nearly lost our people their lives."

"It is proof to their people they have chosen their allies well," Hozuki says, picking at their sleeve. "Isn't that correct?"

Yagura knods. His hands still tented in front of him, as he avoids the urge to gesture with his hands. A habit that has remained hard to break, even after all these years.

"The Kaguya are uneasy. The priestesses have been finding ill omens every where. And they also have more surviving members this year, so resources are becoming tight which only worsens the situation."

"You believe we should act then?" asks Hagino. "Help a clan that should be able to look after themselves?" 

"You would to go to war with them Haruma, over a few goats?" counters Yuki. The derision in his tone pratically dripping.

"They have been taking mercenary jobs from the village, money that could be going towards our people," adds Isoarashi.

"Why are you struggling to finance more of those 'excursions' of yours?"

"It returns to our economy, either way," Yagura throws in, hoping to avoid the messy argument that could follow. The men still bitter over their last arrangement falling through. "And the smaller villages around us have been happier, with the Kaguya raids decreasing."

"If we do nothing, you fear their branches fracturing?" Yuki asks, looking away from his old friend.

"There are members of the Kaguya clan that have begun to enjoy life here, and are content to see if the children enrolled in the academy are stronger than those trained traditionally."

"We have two years left until the second heir graduates, and is forced to fight his brother," Yagura continues. "The child has even become fond of my sister as well, and if the boy succeeds his sibling we will have further influence. Perhaps they may even become valuble members of our villiage in time."

"You play a dangerous game." Adawatchi warns.

Yagura smiles. "We all do."

"Now have you reviewed the requests from refugees seeking sanctuary with us?"

0o0o0

Rival first visit

Tsuru stares at the flustered boy, who keeps glancing back at the door. The dim light, of paper covered lamps casting shadows on his face. 

"Your family is intense," Koya says, dragging a hand through his ruffled hair.

Tsuru laughs. "That is one word for them. Did they ambush you the moment you entered the house?"

"No, your sister did. Your other family members came in later. They just kind of huddled around me, offering me cookies and tea. Asked me a hundred questions."

"Were the cookies good? I wasn't sure about the bean filling, but big brother insisted."

"The ones you made? Yeah. Wait...Are you trying to distract me?" he asks, with narrowing eyes. 

"Yes."

"Of coarse you are," Koya sighs. "Where the hell were you anyway? I was here for hours."

"That was your own fault. I didn't ask you to come."

"Seriously?"

"I told you, i had other people to see. Do you really expect me to take pity on you?"

"Three hours I was here. Alone, with them."

"Still not my fault."

"I only came here, to deliver a written challenge!"

"Then you're an idiot. You have two good legs, and a heart beat. You've could made up an excuse. Left."

"Like i didn't think of that! Your family kept insisting i stay a little longer! Wait for you, to do it in person."

"And you fell for tha-"

"Ah, Tsu-chan," a voice calls from down the hall. "Are you not going to invite your friend, to dinner?

Glee palatable, another yells, "he's more than welcome to join us!"

Both of them freeze and share a look.

"No! He was just leaving!" Tsuru shouts back, grabbing the boy by his sleeve. Her hand sliding down further as they move.

"Hurry," she mouths, and he nods dumbly, still staring at their connected limbs. 

"I..."

"Oh," she says, as exasperation wells within her. "We don't have time for this. Common."

A camera flashes, as Tsuru yanks open the door. Her retinas bathed in searing, white light.

"Oh, they are so cute!" Eito cries, clicking the button again. 

"You were right father, they were holding hands!" he calls out.

"You owe me half of whatever they paid you, Eito-nii," Tsuru warns, with warm cheeks as she rushes forward.

"Spoilsport."

"Can I pay it in hugs?" he asks, thoughtfully. Capping the camera.

"No."

"And don't come here again," she warns her rival, as they pass the third door beyond Eito-nii. "They might try to keep you."

She half believes it, herself.

0o0o0

Never before had an area been cordoned off from Tsuru, since her apprenticeship under the elder Kaguya priestess had began. Nor had it been able to hide Kimimaro's name from her, half butchered and red. The home's and streets around the area abandoned.

When she reaches Subarou's home, to ask, he pulls her in by her shirt. Blood on his palms. Fury on his face.

"My brother's dying," he growls.

Irei smacks her grandson. "I need your help, little priestess."

Tsuru frowns, when she see's the mangled body of the child passed out on the floor. His colour long past pale.


	29. DFS Chapter 28

DfS Chapter 28

Tsuru waits until the day after the full moon, when most of the clan members are sluggish, or asleep after the nights revelries. Slipping into the compound with hangover cures, or at least that is her excuse. 

Getsumei dead, and Subarou pronounced the new clan heir.

Tsuru waves at a few women she is familiar with, as she moves and hands out small bags. They pat her head, or walk away. Some just ignore her. Scowling.

A string of glass beads lie heavy on her chest as Tsuru doubles back, into the area she is forbidden. A gift for the exchange. A sharpened blade, and milky white flask lying in the pocket of her hoodie for the bonding ceremony. 

Tsuru eventually walks the length of Kimimaro's cage, a long roll of bars and volcanic rock.

The boy turning, as if sensing her and dropping the bone in his hand. 

"You shouldn't be here!" Kimimaro whispers harshly, eyes wet.

"Hush."

"I came here to rescue you. I will take responsibility for you," Tsuru whispers back. "And you'll be bound to me, and have to leave the compound, but you'll be free to do as you wish."

Tsuru offers him the necklace she had crafted through the bars, so similar to one of the strands on the heirloom necklace her sister had worn on her wedding day. 

"I will need one of your bones, so they cannot say I did not complete the ritual properly. And we will need to share blood."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Aren't I your friend? 

He looks at her, and hesitantly reaches for the jewels. "Are you sure?" he asks.

She pulls the sharpened blade from her bag, and the glass flask. "Would i of brought these if I wasn't?"

What she doesn't tell him of course, is that she may have to kill his father if he contests her claim.  
That they may be shunned, if the priestesses do not find her bravado as amusing as she hopes.

"It is your choice though," she tells him instead.

Tsuru waits for his answer, heart pounding loudly in her chest. Eyes panning the area for people who might interrupt. His food should be arriving soon, carried by his cousin or grandmother.

She has to remain calm. Act assured, and confident like Yagura planned if this is to work.

He grabs her sleeve. "Yes."

His expression makes her want to punch someone, because it is the most hopeful she has ever seen him.

Tsuru tries to smile like the Madonna, in her aunts church.

"Hold the flask then, and put a fist out. Like this, knuckles facing up.

Her fingers brush cool metal, as she digs in her pocket for the flask, filled with her fathers strongest wine. A cloth wrapped around it to disinfect the skin. 

The boy looks cleaner than she expected, so they have been caring for him, but the robes do nothing to cover the bruises. Great patches of purple, and black and yellow. Left eye swollen.

She takes his hand in hers, and she feels the temours grow stronger. Tsuru does her best to ignore it, scrubbing at the flesh as tenderly as she can.

Finally Tsuru douses the blade, and meets his damp, dragon fly hued eyes. "Ready?" she queries.

He nods, face adopting a solemn expression he has no doubt seen hundreds of times.

Tsuru moves quickly, slashing the blade above his knuckles. Deep enough, she sees the skin separate like folded buns. Using her other hand she pushes the flask beneath. 

Tsuru then does the same to her own. The alcohol burning, as it seeps in.

The wounds deep enough, they will have to visit the hospital, or stitch it up themselves.

Her damaged fingers entwines with his, and she takes the flask from him. 

"My blood is now yours." she says, wobbling the fluid inside. "Drink."

He does.

She leaves out may it breed true, creeped out by the implications.

The cup is pushed back, towards her. 

She feels the unnatural urge to punch someone.

She tips the cup and swallows, the metallic taste lacking the sugar, and cinnamon her aunt had used to flavor her blood pancakes. 

A small price.

The crimson fluid splashes across her cheek, and forehead as a familiar figure slaps it from her palm. The flask arching, from her hand against the wall. She follows it's path and watches it shatter. Pieces like spooked butterflies, scattering off a wall. 

Subarou looming over her tall, and furious. His sleeve wiping furiously at her face, and then lips trying to gain access. "You idiot! You shouldn't of done that."

"I did what was right," she says, shoving him away. "what your clans were to cowardish to do."

"I told you my cousin was dangerous!"

"And i told you, I was too!"

A crowd begins to gather, attracted by the noise. The priestesses pushing through, stopping the men from approaching closer.

A fierce, black haired woman storms forward. Kureha. "What have you done child?"

Kimimaro's grandmother grabs her shoulder. "The child knows."

"My luck is far greater than most, and bound with his, evens things out," Tsuru states, refusing to look away. 

The woman's face turns pitying. "Luck does not work that way child."

"Does it?" the eldest ponders. 

"Do you contest my claim?" Tsuru demands

"No, that is for my youngest son to decide." 

"Are you sure?" Irei adds, as the people around her murmer. "That this is the right course?"

"Yes, though he has it worse, being bound to someone like me. In this world," she says stepping forward. Blood still dripping from her hand. "I do not know how to be anything but selfish when it matters."

The elder priestess laughs. "A lesser god, forgotten and rotting has finally taken to flesh."

"Whatever I was, grandmother," she says, pausing to watch the growing crowd flinch. "No longer matters. But I will protect what is mine."

"Pretty words," the clan heads says, joining them.

"Yes, they are," she acknowledges. "Especially considering what we will all face."

"You might even survive this time, if you continue on the path my brother has set."

"And what is that your brother has seen?"

"That is not for me to tell."

"Know this though, I will not protect you from yourself as my brother has been. Your son perhaps, but not you. You're on my shit list, as my brother calls it."

0o0o0

Facing a grown man, Tsuru refuses to bulk.

This is the moment her siblings have been preparing her for, the academy. 

Tsuru moves, watching bones sprout from Hirosuga's pale flesh. Lengthy, blood stained points, that remind her of a opening bud, encoring his hand like a pistal. The growth leaving long jagged gashes, that quickly heal.

Clearly not as talented as his son, or underestimating her.

He charges.

And misses, snagging nothing but air.

He takes his time, studying her.

"My son is not worth your talent, girl."

Tsuru motions for him again. "I doubt your son will ever forgive me for taking your life, but sometimes you cannot stop fate.

"Now please come. Enough talk."

He frowns.

"Move brother, or i will strike you both down," growls the clan head. Crossing his arms.

Tsuru sighs, when the other man still does not move. Gaping at her. 

"I am sorry, for this."

Tsuru moves. Shoves the knife in, as far, and deep as she can into the man's spleen. There won't be enough time for another few strikes, to properly damage it as his bones try to stop the blade. 

But he is a dead man standing.

She manuvers, keeping out of his range. The skin healing over the blade.

Striking when she can, trying to jostle the blade from its confines.

The man winces, but that move only works once. The man quick to adjust.

0o0o0

Tsuru stands behind the fallen man, her hands pressing his head down. Shinigami surrounding them.

She slides the same blade, she used to steal his son, to slice Hirosuga's neck.

"How cute." The second shinigami coos, pattings her cheek. "You are an adorable one."

Tsuru's freezes, and Hirosuga strikes. Catching her side, with the last of his energy.

Bleeding, and holding her throbbing ribs, Tsuru watches the shinigami approach the man.

Watches him get swallowed.

0o0o0 

Tsuru can see desire warring in Kimimaro's eyes, as she unlocks his cage. A wad of torn cloth pressed tightly to her injured side.

"If you need a time to say goodbye, take it."

He stares at her for a moment, and then the body across from them.

"I cannot thank you for this."

"I know. You loved him."

0o0o0 

The anbu are waiting outside the compound, ready to escort them home. 

Tsuru shakes her head, refusing the hunched figure motioning to his back. Swats away Kaisa, and her glowing hands away. "It can wait."

She has nothing to hide, and the pain is welcomed.

Tsuru stares right ahead. Kimimaro following behind her with glassy eyes. 

It is a long walk back home through the market and Tsuru wants to hug the boy, but shes afraid too.

Afraid he will break down.

Afraid he will refuse her.

His fathers dripping head, held up by his hair only worsening matters.

0o0o0 

Haku rips open the door.

"I can't believe your plan wor-."

"Kimimaro needs a hug, Haku-kun.

Rounded eyes regard her, and he nods. Moving slowly to embrace the other child, Tsuru feels his sleeve brush hers. 

Yagura tugs her into the house, and pulls her hand from her side. She lets out a low hiss, as the cloth tears from the sealed wound, and it begins weeping in earnest.

Brows furrowed, Yagura chides her. "You should of let the medic check that.

"It was just close shave."

"I could put my finger in there."

"Don't you dare."

0o0o0 

Tsuru stitches Kimimaro's hand, under the medics supervision.

She can't bring herself to look at him.

"I don't hate you Tsuru-chan."

"That a little hard to believe."

"Look at me," the boy demands.

He raises his hand between their faces. "You chose to save me, and this is my promise. One day, I will save you."

"Haku says it is my purpose, to serve and protect you."

"Good luck with that, kiddo," Eito says, stopping to ruffle the boy's hair as he passes. 

Kimimaro flinches, and her brother frowns. 

He turns to Tsuru fully, and she can almost imagine his hair standing fully up as he bristles. "How badly are you hurt?"

"Did you two idiots, did you even tell father what you were planning?" he asks, glancing at Yagura. The man preparing to sneak out.

"There's an envelop in his desk?" Tsuru tries, hoping Yagura had forgotten about that.

Her eyes narrow when the man smiles wide. His tone almost gleeful. "I sent mine."

Fuck.


End file.
